Review: Little Women

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Making a classic story that's been told many times before feel fresh again is something of a feat, but that's exactly what director Greta Gerwig does with her second feature - a buoyant, generous retelling of Louisa May Alcott's beloved 1868 novel "Little Women."

Although I was immediately sucked into the film, it took me a while to recognize why some reviewers have described the picture as audacious. Having not reviewed the material - either through reading it or watching the 1994 film version of the story - for many years, it didn't occur to me until after having watched Gerwig's picture that her version begins more than halfway through the novel, reframing the story so that its focus is on Jo March's (Saoirse Ronan) struggle to tell her own stories as a novelist in her own way.

Gerwig has also chosen to tell the story in her own way with two separate timelines via flashbacks, during which each period of time has its own palette - the past has a rosy visual hue, while the present is more drained of color. The film also has what must be one of the best ensembles I've seen in some time - the excellent Ronan is joined by Emma Watson (as Meg March), Florence Pugh (as Amy March), Eliza Scanlen (as younger sister Beth), Meryl Streep (as the fussy Aunt March), Laura Dern (as Marmee March), Timothee Chalamet (as multi-sister love interest Laurie), Chris Cooper (as warmhearted Mr. Laurence), Tracy Letts (representing the patriarch as a publisher who rolls his eyes at Jo's writing endeavors), Bob Odenkirk (as Father March) and Louis Garrel (as Friedrich Bhaer).

Much has been written about women's role in positions of power in Hollywood in recent years, and it's a well known fact that a majority of filmmakers in the studio system are men. Gerwig made a stunning debut a few years back with the wonderful "Lady Bird," which quickly added her to a short list of women who make high profile films and earn awards for them. That list also includes Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.

So, it's fitting that Gerwig's second feature as a director finds her telling a story - albeit a classic one refitted for a modern take - about a young woman who wants to be a storyteller and must find her own voice in a world in which men think women shouldn't be doing such a thing. Ultimately, Gerwig's version of "Little Women" primarily focuses on two things: Jo's growth as an artist and the bond she shares with her sisters - Meg, the oldest sister; Amy, with whom Jo occasionally has a fraught relationship; and Beth, the baby of the family.

Gerwig doesn't drop the romantic elements of the novel - Meg struggles with her marriage to a man she loves, but who has little money, Jo has a blossoming romance with Bhaer and at least two of the sisters become somewhat entangled with the love-struck Laurie. And while the film ends with a character rushing to stop another at a train station - an often used cinematic trope - much of the film finds Jo rolling her eyes at the concept of women serving the sole purpose of being wives and mothers. When she finally decides to pursue romantic love, it's on her own terms.

Gerwig's "Little Women" is what I'd call a generous film. Each character is given the attention required to make them feel fully fleshed out - Bhaer gets slightly less than in the novel, but this is made up for in the film's final scenes - and there's a fair amount of warmth one can recognize that Gerwig has for the characters. Even the sour Aunt March is given the humanistic treatment in the hands of Gerwig and Streep, who portrays her as a dispenser of tough love, so that her nieces have better lives.

The film is an emotional one, but without overdoing it - take, for instance, a powerful use of matching shots when Jo in the past descends a staircase to find a group of people having breakfast at a table, and then Jo in the present descending that same staircase to find a different scene. "Little Women," much like "Lady Bird," is a deeply felt and personal film about the lives of women who are not interested in fulfilling roles assigned to them, but rather following their own imaginations and pursuing their own dreams. This is a lovely film.