Movie Review: Little Women

“Just because my dreams are different from yours doesn’t mean they’re unimportant.” Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is her second feature film directorial endeavor. Gerwig, it seems, has a masterful death grip on the coming of age stories of women. Lady Bird, her first film, was one of the top films of 2017 and attracted attention from both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. In 2020, however, Gerwig has been snubbed by the HFPA and Little Women at large has failed to garner any major nominations outside of two: Saoirse Ronan for Best Actress and Alexandre Desplat for Best Original Score. Gerwig, like every other female director and screenwriter in 2019, was shut out by the HFPA for this year’s Golden Globes. This comes after 76 years of the awards ceremony in which only five women have been nominated for Best Director. Besides all of the drama surrounding the HFPA and tonight’s Golden Globes ceremony, Little Women is a feat of directing. Directors, men and women alike, can only dreaming of putting together such a masterpiece. The film’s construction on all levels is representative of what good filmmaking is. Every piece in this massive puzzle works on multiple levels and Gerwig proves that some stories are never too old to be relevant. The film is emotional, warm, hopeful, romantic, and sends a powerful message to the young women of today.

The cast for Little Women was revealed to me back in the middle of 2018 when the internet brought it to my attention that Greta Gerwig was to direct this film starring Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet. I will be honest, prior to seeing this film I’d never been familiar with the broader story of Little Women, let alone the details. To say that this film hit me like a ton of bricks is an understatement. Besides Ronan and Chalamet, the film also stars Florence Pugh, Laura Dern, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, and Meryl Streep. The acting for this film was off the charts. For such powerful actors, this is to be expected, though the moments of subtlety and nuance that further enhance the film really are the icing on the cake. For people living in the 21st century, watching the acting on the screen was akin to seeing a black and white photo become colorized. Suddenly, the realities that these characters faced became real and I felt them to the core of my body. Little Women isn’t a war movie, nor is it really a period piece. It’s a timeless film that tells the story of women who find ways to make their dreams come true. Truth be told, Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh carry this film no doubt. That isn’t to say that the rest of the cast did a poor job, but that the stories of Pugh and Ronan’s Jo and Amy are mostly central to the overall plot over the rest of the cast. Chalamet also pulls his weight here though his performance struck me as similar to Lady Bird and even Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. If you’re a fan of anyone in the cast, I would say that Little Women is the movie for you.

If you’re not a fan of period pieces, Little Women is still the movie for you. Why? Because this story is timeless. Gerwig, through her writing emphasizes the stories of Meg, Beth, Amy, and Jo and not only that but the importance of those stories. Whether a woman wants to be a wife or a professional, it’s all the same. Those dreams are important and she should have the agency to choose for herself. In her script, Gerwig uses the stories of the characters to show that at her core, a woman wants to be seen as a full person and an equal. This universal truth is blasted through the script time and time again and through other visual moments throughout the film as well. Though, while Gerwig obviously takes a vested interest women and their stories, she does not do so in a way that negates the accomplishments of men. In the days of today where both men and woman seem to stand on what feels like polar opposite sides of the modern feminist movement, Gerwig articulates that there is nothing wrong with a woman having ambition, and that there is nothing wrong with a man being accomplished. The beauty of Gerwig’s Little Women is that each and every character is on the same level as the others around them regardless of their gender, marital status, or socioeconomic status.

Little Women was the icing on the cake for me in terms of cinema in 2019. The year started out dry, sparse, and appeared to be heading that way for the rest of the year. But in the last months or so of the year, films like Hustlers, Little Women, Parasite, Queen And Slim, Frozen 2, Marriage Story, and many others graced the screens and turned this last year into a powerful year for cinema. Gerwig’s film is a testament to the accomplishments of women before her and is an inspiration for the women who will come after her. I will be rooting for this film to be nominated for the 92nd Academy Awards, and I believe that this film is deserving of much grander recognition than the HFPA is awarding it. If you’re anyone who has ever had a dream, this movie is for you.

Rating: 10/10