Little Women ** (2019, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep) – Movie Review

Little Women (2019) is nominated for six Oscars and five Baftas, but it is an over-earnest, plodding and underwhelming movie, with writer-director Greta Gerwig struggling to make Louisa May Alcott’s novel more ‘modern’ and ‘relevant’ and just succeeding in making it seem messy, muddled and much more old fashioned. It plays like an old-time BBC classic serial, but with an unnecessary metoo spin. Gerwig doesn’t trust her source material.

Little Women is not a modern book, it is a timeless book. Jo March is not a modern heroine, she is a timeless heroine. Saoirse Ronan gets an enormous amount of screen time as Jo March. She is the only character that has anything much to say or do. She has too much to say and do. This Jo March is way up herself and suffers from high self esteem. It makes her seem self obsessed, self important, solipsistic and arrogant, and Saoirse Ronan plays her with supreme confidence but without charm. It is hard to like this Jo March. Couldn’t she have just a little bit of self doubt and personal conflict?

Her sisters Meg, Amy and Beth – all of them mistakenly looking for husbands and security – are played by Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen. Of the three, only Florence Pugh makes any real impression at all, and even so she was hugely more impressive in Lady Macbeth (2016) and Midsommar (2019). Emma Watson’s role and performance are particularly underpowered.

On the plus side, Laura Dern is excellent as mum, Marmee March, with a couple of fine scenes and strong moments, and Meryl Streep gives her crazy old dame turn another workout as Aunt March. It is not exactly subtle acting, or even acting at all, but it is campy fun, and even funny. Ah, yes, Meryl Streep as the comedy relief in a film of dull deadly earnestness. Never thought we’d get to that point, but here we have.

Naturally, Greta Gerwig ensures that her male characters and the actors playing them are sidelined into near zeros. Those good actors Timothée Chalamet, James Norton and Chris Cooper are all squandered. They really needn’t have bothered turning up. Unexpectedly, two male actors do make an impression though: Louis Garrel (as the dashing Friedrich Bhaer) and Tracy Letts (as the publisher Mr Dashwood), both of them with just about enough screen time and good lines to be actually amusing.

Gerwig’s screenplay is messy and muddled. It is hard sometimes to understand where we are in the time-shifting narrative, or what is real or simply imagined by our budding author heroine. Is this just the fantasy happy ending Jo had promised her editor/ publisher and/ or her readers?

It is firmly established at the start that Jo cares nothing for marriage, only her independence, yet at the end there is a happy ever after conclusion that has already been undermined by Jo’s statements and Alcott’s statements. The having the cake and eating it conclusion is very irritating and vexing indeed. This Jo March is not the marrying kind.

It is previously made as Little Women 1933, in 1949 as Little Women, in 1978 as Little Women (TV Mini-Series), in 1994 as Little Women and again as Little Women (2017) (TV Mini-Series).

It is nominated for six Oscars: The Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Saoirse Ronan), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Florence Pugh), Best Adapted Screenplay (Greta Gerwig), Best Achievement in Costume Design (Jacqueline Durran) and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) (Alexandre Desplat).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com