She has returned to bring us an adaptation of the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, Little Women. Greta Gerwig is back from her debut splash (the indie Lady Bird, which took home the Golden Globes for Best Actress and Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy). If you need a warm blanket this winter, look no further than your local cinema’s screening of Little Women. ‘I’m angry nearly every day of my life,’ she confides to Jo.Īs a whole piece, the seventh film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel is magnificent, gorgeous, and poignant with it, Greta Gerwig proves herself to be one of the best working directors, regardless of gender. Laura Dern, too, shines in her supporting role as Marmee, showcasing a saintly kindness and warmth that never come across as implausible. The breaking of her voice doesn’t come off as forced, or even deliberate you are simply watching a woman who has lost her passion and her sisters and her friends, crying in front of her mother.įlorence Pugh and Timothée Chalamet get more chances than Ronan to show off their comedy chops Pugh is hilarious in a scene where she wails outside of Laurie’s house (‘I would’ve never have sprained my ankle I have lovely small feet, the best in the family’) and Chalamet’s gangly, awkward movements are delightful up until the precise moment they’re heartbreaking. I’m so sick of it! But I’m s-I’m so lonely.’ The heartbreak is so clear on her face, in the agonised gestures of her hands. Never is this more evident than in her bravura speech: ‘ have minds and they have souls as well as just hearts, and they’ve got ambition and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty, and I’m so sick of people saying that-that love is just all a woman is fit for. Her Jo is utterly captivating, wild and brash and yet vulnerable, loving and mean, confident and insecure. This is true of no one more than Saoirse Ronan, who consistently proves to be among the greatest talent of her generation. All of the performers are incredible every character seems fully fledged and complete, as if they go on existing even when the screen fades to black. It is not just Gerwig, however, who makes the film her own. This is Gerwig’s story as much as it is Alcott’s, making the experience of watching it feel fresh.Įvery character seems fully fledged and complete, as if they go on existing even when the screen fades to black Gerwig finds a way to reinvigorate a narrative that has been adapted many times before, both with her new structure and her impeccable visual style, which makes the entire film feel like it’s wrapping you up in a warm hug. Alcott’s tale of the domestic struggles of four sisters has enraptured readers for 150 years, inspiring a great deal of love (my aunt is even named after Jo March). Laurie may as well be asking Gerwig how many women have been permitted to win Best Director at the Oscars (the answer is one).īut Jo’s story is important. Laurie (Timothée Chalamet) asks her how many women are allowed to be considered geniuses, anyway. Similarly, Amy faces doubt over her painting while in Paris: ‘I want to be great or nothing,’ she declares, giving up on her dream at the age of twenty. She calls it ‘not very good’ in her letter to Mr Dashwood, and tells Amy and Meg that ‘it doesn’t have any real importance.’ Her life, in her own view, doesn’t hold the potential to be great art. Later, Jo debates the value of the novel she’s writing about the lives of her and her sisters. They are inauthentic, but the publisher (Mr Dashwood, played by Tracy Letts) thinks they’re what the public wants. In the ‘present’ timeline, Jo is selling stories to an old male publisher they are lurid crime stories, ones she knows would worry her mother. Gerwig alters the structure of Louisa May Alcott’s iconic novel, cutting between the golden-toned childhood of four sisters - Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Amy (Florence Pugh), Meg (Emma Watson), and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) - and their first forays into the cold reality of adulthood, seven years later. Women’s stories matter, and always have done. While Little Women is not a direct reaction to the criticism faced by Lady Bird, Gerwig certainly makes this point: these stories matter. Women’s stories matter, and always have done
LITTLE WOMEN 2019 CRACKED
It was just another coming-of-age movie it wasn’t as important as it was cracked up to be. The effusive praise, some claimed, was hyperbolic. But it did quickly get slapped with that supremely irritating label: overrated. Most agreed that it was a breath of fresh air, poignant, bolstered by one of the best performances of the year, and authentic. There wasn’t much backlash against Greta Gerwig’s first feature film, Lady Bird.
0 kommentar(er)
