2019 In Review: Little Women
Absolutely Delightful
(no, really)
*Please excuse the belligerent behavior*
* * * * *
This is the Little Women adaptation to end all Little Women adaptations. We’ve peaked. This is not ironic. There will be no need to ever tell this story on film ever again. Greta Gerwig is a saint. Her version of Louisa May Alcott’s timeless coming of age novella is not only the most charming and cheerful movie of 2019, but it is such without being an overly sappy, disgustingly warm and fuzzy picture, rather a genuinely heartfelt and inspired story. This thing is so astronomically toasty it’s like being wrapped up in an actual Christmas miracle.
Every frame of this picture crackles like a cozy fire, yet chills like a blanket of powdered snow. Each moment, past and present, is designed to have audiences leap for joy, then tear their own beating hearts out, and then repeat the process. Even if such colorful emotions are bottled up, for the most part it works. The set design is flawless, the costumes are authentic, and no other picture this year feels like unwrapping a present, even if it is inevitably the gift of heart-wrenching existential crisis.
The cast is delightful. Laura Dern is the mom every little girl wants to have, and every grown man wants to hold (No disrespect). Meryl Streep shows up for like five minutes as an old-ass, cranky yet tender granny-figure but still kills, and Bob Odenkirk literally feels like Bob Cratchit on Christmas morning (I can’t stress this Christmas feeling enough).
Emma Watson (Meg) makes for a wonderful Wendy of an older sister to a family of lost boys played by some talented-ass ladies, although the picture obviously belongs to the crackling feminine rage between the ambitious Saoirse Ronan (Jo) and The furious Florence Pugh (Amy). That being said, sweetheart Eliza Scanlen (Beth) was hella played up to be the red-headed stepchild of the four girls, literally thrown away with a line, “she’s only good for the piano,” but hey, perhaps the simplest of the bunch truly does make her the best of us, as the film states. Her piano-playing plot line just might bring grown adults to tears, so if anything she’s the Tiny Tim of the lot, making this whole thing feel even more Christmasy as it goes along.
The primary sisters share a remarkable chemistry, although that boyishly handsome Timmy Chalametty fellow could have been played by anyone, no disrespect to Grerwig. He’s charming, though not terribly chummy, although he may only exist as exposition for the riff between Jo and Amy (perhaps that’s just the Laurie character, though).
The only real gripe with the film is the time-jumping between SEVEN actual years. I know they’re literally little women (and a little Timmy Chardonnay) we’re talking about, but the timeline insists these kids are supposed to be in their EARLY TEENS in the flashbacks, and some of these folks are pushing thirty in real life! At least give Timmy some peach fuzz in the adult timeline to establish he’s a man. Damn. No disrespect to Grerwig though, she’s got so much going for her that none of the hokey flaws matter. The muted color tones for a washed out, melancholic present juxtaposed with a warm, saturated past filled with sunshine and flowers truly captures the spirit of colorful nostalgia vs. the crushing, white weight of existential reality.
Ronan gives Jo that much needed spirit of the strong independent woman who don’t need no man (despite what her publisher says), and Grerwig keeps her story within her story just meta enough to question the ambiguity of a tale as timid as this (despite the sappy romantic ending). The story goes against traditional expectation, and it’s literally explained to the audience in the form of Saoirse rejecting female stereotypes to an old boomer. It's honestly something. Greta has reshaped Alcott’s traditional themes and classic structure to storytelling for a modern audience and somehow it doesn’t only work, it’s actually an improvement.
For a time period where women were gravely oppressed, Greta gives the ladies a modern day platform to stand independently tall, no matter how little society deems them, and for that alone the film is significant, like baby Jesus himself were to appear in a tiny little Christmas ghost manger. And no one can take that away.
*100 points to all the ladies
*10 points to Christmas
