Little Women: A Timeless Story Badly Deconstructed (and For What?)
There was no reason to fragment Louisa May Alcott’s terrific Little Women in a non-linear narrative. The bigger problem, however, is that the fragmented narrative doesn’t do anything new to the story and its multiple adaptations and can’t rise past Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 magnum opus. After seeing Armstrong’s [re]adaptation of the story, nothing can and will ever beat it. Writer/director Greta Gerwig tries to spice up the story, as it is now being adapted for the SEVENTH TIME, but can’t seem to figure out exactly what to do with these timeless and incredibly interesting characters.
Once again, the movie tells the story of The March Sisters (Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen) and how they come of age in the aftermath of the Civil War, but in a fragmented way. The film begins in 1868, where Jo March (Ronan) tries to sell stories to Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) and moves to 1861 in which we see the four March sisters together and the blossoming of the love between Jo and Theodore Laurence (Timothée Chalamet) and goes back-and-forth with the “past” and the “present” in which Jo comes back from New York to Concord, Massachussets to take care of her ailing sister, Beth (Scanlen), while Amy March (Pugh) is in France with Laurie and Aunt March (Meryl Streep).
I’m a positive guy, and there’s a lot to like in Little Women, particularly from the terrific performances of Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern, Eliza Scanlen, Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep. Cooper doesn’t get the love he deserves, he starred in two acclaimed films in 2019, and he both gave powerhouse performances, especially in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Cooper’s performance in this is better than the one he gave in Beautiful Day, but only by a smidge. Every screen time he has is a blessed one as he truly immerses himself in the role of Mr. Laurence, just like every other minor role. Meryl Streep is hilarious as Aunt March, who probably got the most laughs by the audience. This is probably Streep’s best role in a while due to the wittiness of her character being brilliantly transposed to screen and brought to life by an apparently “overrated” actress. But the best performance of the entire film is the ever-so-captivating Saoirse Ronan who steals every inch of the frame everytime she is on screen.
The cinematography from Yorick Le Saux is absolutely exquisite (I would’ve nominated it for an Oscar and removed The Irishman from the roster…god-awful cinematography that movie has), and beautifully complements Ronan’s acting as Jo March. Her facial expressions are the most complex of her career and it’s interesting to see how it adds SO MUCH to the role. Most of the performances from every actor are conveyed through facial expressions. Greta Gerwig allows the faces of the actors to convey so much — it’s why she cast a slew of actors who are prone to be terrific facial actors like Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Tracy Letts, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh (see Midsommar) and Bob Odenkirk. The most poignant scene of the movie involving Ronan’s character is when she cut her hair so she can give money to her mother (Laura Dern), her facial expressions of innocence, and then pure depression once she hates her look are beautifully conveyed in that sequence and Saoirse Ronan probably gives the best perfomance of her career (I say probably because I haven’t seen Lady Bird yet…I know, I know).
The fundamental problem of Little Women doesn’t reside in its wonderful performances, costume design, score and sumptuous 35mm cinematography, it’s the script. Louisa May Alcott’s story has been done six times already, and it doesn’t need to be readapted again. I honestly couldn’t give two shits who was behind the camera, all you needed to do was to keep it simple, and don’t overcomplexify the story or try to innovate. Little Women was such a success because the story was grounded in reality and didn’t need any extravageance or fluff to spice the story up. It had well-developed and charming female characters in which the reader went in an emotional journey through the 759 pages of Alcott’s novel. Greta Gerwig believes that, in order to keep the story fresh & timely, we need to deconstruct a perfect piece of literature and fragment it in a non-linear way. Sometimes, it works (especially when the film match-cuts Jo at Beth’s funeral to her looking out at a window in joy at the fact that Meg (Watson) will be married today), but, most of the time, it simply doesn’t. The back-and-forth with the “past” and the “present” makes the entire story feel weightless and us trying to patch ourselves through the emotional progression of The March Sisters’ story feel overly complex and, at times, downright confusing.
The truth is: Little Women doesn’t need a revamp in its structure and Alcott’s book isn’t to be played around with and deconstructed. It’s a sacred piece of literature that can’t be fiddled and modernized. Gillian Armstrong pulled off the impossible by properly adapting the story and making the film a timeless classic and one of the best film adaptations of any book ever made. Little Women doesn’t need to be readapted again. Greta Gerwig tried to rework the story, and failed miserably, because the story doesn’t need to be reworked. I might be a Little Women purist because I read the book one-too-many times in many english literature classes, but I completely loathed what Greta Gerwig did to the story — it’s completely unnecessary and doesn’t add anything. It makes the entire film feel exhausting, which is the LEAST what Alcott’s book is. Great performances can’t save this editing and writing nightmare. It’s probably my least favorite of the best picture nominees. Having seen them all, my official rankings are:
#9: Little Women (Greta Gerwig)
#8: 1917 (Sam Mendes)
#7: Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi)
#6: Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
#5: Ford v Ferrari (James Mangold)
#4: The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
#3: Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)
#2: Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
#1: Joker (Todd Phillips)
Of course, all of that is subjective.
Little Women: ✯✯
