I cried for the ENTIRE MOVIE when I wasn’t laughing hysterically at Every Single Florence Pugh Line Reading.
I have heard so many actresses say “your one beauty!” and there is NO COMPARISON. Her little frowns! Her little scrunches! Her beautiful face and eyebrows and genius!!!!
I cried so hard I couldn’t eat my popcorn so I only ate the top inch and there had been no attempt made to circulate the butter so I just had an inch of oil in my stomach and nearly puked in the cab going back to my hotel.
I cried so much that when Mr. March walked in I SCREAM-LAUGH-CRIED “BOB ODENKIRK!!!” in a small indie theater
Aunt March telling Baby Florence she had to save her family! AND SHE WAS CORRECT.
John Brooke has always been a problem, bc WHY Meg? Why did you marry John Brooke? (LOVED how much Greta pulled from Good Wives so we could see the natural consequences of her disastrous match and also him being extremely passive aggressive about the dress) but the minute I saw Sexy Vicar was John Brooke I turned to Danny and was like “The Problem of John Brooke has been solved.” Such a clear-cut case of dickmatization. Which is not to shit on Eric Stoltz, but Sexy Vicar ACTUALLY sold me on John Brooke.
Amy is a Queen. Florence Pugh transformed Amy. Amy is a hero.
I have never cared about Beth before and I care SO MUCH now. And the BEAUTIFUL scenes with Mr. Laurence!!!!!!! Oh my GOD, I cried SO MUCH. I had to lie down.
I loved the timeline. I loved THE DIRECTING. it’s almost like she should have been NOMINATED for an ACADEMY AWARD.
all the mr dashwood scenes? perfect
the sand blowing at the beach
I have never gotten Timmy Chalamet because he looks like a child but I enjoyed him so much more than I expected, especially when he was like “who is this fucking dude?” when Prof. Bhaer (HOT!) showed up at the house.
Also; the way Greta just had Beth walk into the Hummel house and close the door and that’s the entire scene and she is a dead person walking from that moment on was a stark and brutal and Midsommar-esque shot
Can we talk more about the Amy/Laurie dynamic? This is the first version where their pairing make sense to me on a deeper level than "they're both hot people who enjoy the trappings of wealth." I thought this version made clear how lost Laurie feels and how much he likes strong, opinionated, take-charge women -- which is why he initially fell for Jo, while seeing Amy as a frivolous kid. It wasn't till Amy told him to shape up, and then revealed how smart and strong-willed she is in her own way, that he found her romantically attractive. Meanwhile, Amy has always had a bossy streak to her personality, which was thwarted at first by being the youngest of four sisters, and later on because she's trying to land a rich husband so has to act conventionally sweet and docile. But Laurie, unlike the other men in her circle, LIKES it when she's bossy. There's no doubt in my mind that even though Amy prides herself on being very proper and feminine, she's the one who wears the pants in that relationship. (Or, as my mom put it, "Florence Pugh looks like she could take Timothée Chalamet in a fight.")
However, when I explained this interpretation to a friend of mine (the words "power femme Amy and softboy Laurie" might have been involved), he told me that I had "ruined the movie for him" with this "incredibly cynical and un-romantic view of heterosexual relationships." So I'm posting this here in the hopes that someone else might agree with me in thinking that Gerwig/Pugh/Chalamet's take on Amy & Laurie is interesting and satisfying, rather than movie-ruining!
Hoooo boy that scene at the end? When Jo is telling her mom how she wants to be an independent woman but is also so terribly lonely? Greta Gerwig, stab me in the heart with your writing utensil of choice.
“You’ll be bored of him in two years and we’ll be interesting ALWAYS” is the way I feel about 90% of my friends’ marriages including my sister’s (hi Matt if you’re reading this)
This adaptation was the perfect one I have always wanted. My only sister passed away some time ago, also after a long illness. Yet somehow, despite knowing I was going to watch an adaptation of THE novel about a Dead Sister, I did not anticipate being so moved because I never "got" Beth before either. I wept into my Junior Mints. Genius.
I adored Laura Dern in this, too! Marmee gets to be as pissed off as I never knew I wished her to be! And I love that this adaptation puts their father in the canon of Bad Decision Dads of the 19th Century next to Pa Ingalls.
Also can we talk about the Meg Party Scene? I always felt odd about how that was framed in the book. The way it was written always made me feel that Laurie's condemnation of Meg's dress (and general desire to party down) was full of the weight of Authorial Condemnation and we were supposed to 100 percent agree with Laurie. I liked that here, it makes it seem more like Laurie is jealous other people get to flirt with one of his Sister-Mom-Girlfriends and maybe Meg has a right to be mad at him.
Florence Pugh SAVED AMY. Least likable sister became BELOVED to me. There’s only so many times I can see the book burning scene— it’s like Bruce Wayne losing his parents over and over— but I loved Jo being cradled by her sisters after trying to beat the shit out of Amy.
Also, adooooooored Mr. Bhaer. He matched Jo’s temper and with such an earnest frankness and was so gentle and intellectual and I looooved him.
YES Florence Pugh was fucking BRILLIANT but just as many props to Greta Gerwig's writing -- she GOT Amy the way no one (certainly including ME) ever has. And I too had never quite tuned into Chalamet, but there has never ever been a better Laurie, ever -- the character must have that tousled, needy, elfin, broken quality or he is NOT LAURIE. Ugh, Christian Bale was like a block of WOOD, a frat bro. BTW The Professor Bhaer problem ALSO solved for all time by Louis Garrel--and not just in the hotness (though: omg the hotness), because Gabriel Byrne too had the hotness, but did not have Bhaer's *heaviness*, his absolutely ponderous earnestness. In fact a young Byrne would probably have been a marvelous Laurie, so it was a total cheat in that 90s version. Here Gerwig made all that heavy, earnest humorlessness into EXACTLY what Jo (possibly) needed--the moment where he says, as if suddenly realizing--"has no one ever taken your writing seriously enough to talk to you about it like this?" just went straight to my heart. No, no one ever had. And if it was hard for Jo to hear, it was also just what she needed to hear. THRILLING, wonderful film.
In the book, Meg comforts Jo when she cries about her disastrous, selfless haircut; in the 1994 adaptation, it's Beth; in the 2019 version, it's Amy. The nuances of this shift inform the characters, with drastically different results. In this essay I will
I loved the timeline. It felt like when you open a present on Christmas and you already know what it might be and somehow you're surprised and delighted and it's just what you always wanted. Florence Pugh was fabulously miscast as a 12 year old but she was so hilarious and perfect that I didn't care that she was clearly 24 the whole time. The composition of Jo sitting down after rejecting Laurie? Chris Cooper sitting on the stairs listening to Beth? The way the whole fam just stares at Jo when Behr leaves? The way the March house was so drab on the outside but on the inside was colorful and joyful? The way Marmee composes herself before entering the room after the Hummels and the way Jo composes herself before entering the room after Teddy/Amy get married? I hope whoever wins best director gives it to Greta instead.
I also came out of it a hardcore Aunt Meryl stan. She was damn right. You cannot waste a tousled haired rich neighbor in love willing to be in love with any of THE FOUR girls in the house. Beth’s dutifulness killing her is so New England and made me so sad. But reading all these comments what I am really seeing are people delighted that a movie catered to THEM and answered THEIR questions and did right to THEM. Which cis white men get all the time, and we are getting this time.
My two favorite parts are when Beth and Amy clink their pipes together and when Timothee Chalamet is standing on a chair for no apparent reason saying “there’s a girl”
Okay, the casting is perfect, and Florence redeems Amy in a way that puts the blood of actual Jesus to shame, BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GRETA MADE A MOVIE THAT VISUALLY REPRESENTS WHAT WRITING FEELS LIKE?!
The scene where Jo is laying out all the pages of her novel in the attic did me all the way in.
God I wept through the entire thing. You miss out on a bit of the pleasure of "just hanging out with the Marches as they grow up" which you get with the book, the way Gerwig has framed and edited it. But instead, she made a film about the end of childhood and one's yearning for it, and thusly, I wept throughout.
Saoirse Ronan was exquisite obviously but Florence Pugh was a revelation. Amy has been the character no nerdy girl could ever love for SO LONG and the scene in her studio with Laurie alone changed everything.
I enjoyed the sly little wink of ambiguity in the ending. Like, are we watching the REAL ending or the happy pat ending that Jo (/LMA) wrote to satisfy her readers? I thought Author Jo's final scenes at the publishing house walked a really interestingly metatextual line.
Also Florence Pugh had a REVELATORY YEAR, didn't she
Agree with all of the above. I think this is the best movie of the year, the decade, and possibly ever. As someone for whom the book was a big part of my childhood, I am STUNNED but what Greta Gerwig was able to accomplish with this. She saw what was great about the book and managed to make it better, deeper, more meaningful. They should give her ALL THE AWARDS.
My daughters, who have not read the book, LOVED it. We all cried like babies. I honestly can't believe how good it is.
Side note: Being firmly in middle age now, seeing this film made me I realize that I fell short of my ambition to be Jo March and yet at the same time will never, ever achieve Marmee status. It was a rough evening, emotionally.
I also cried the ENTIRE TIME. Chris Cooper as Mr. Laurence was everything, and every time he and Beth interacted I wept. Florence Pugh was a revelation. JUSTICE FOR MEG MARCH! The adaptation was so lovely and perfect and the music and everything.
I loved how really incompatible Jo and Laurie were in this one because they were way too synced up and hot in 1994 and definitely should have ended up together instead of Christian Bale ditching WiJona for a brand new Amy nobody knows.
In this it was like, well duh, Jo doesn’t want to marry this blousoned tree nymph, she’s gotta write a book.
I was an extra in the train scene (you can’t see me in the film) BUT Louis garrell SMILED AT ME, Emma Watson looked right at me and GG had a bright pink hydro flask ! I have never read the book but I just picked up a copy and I’m so excited to read it
Highly recommend the Radio Cherry Bombe interview with Christine Tobin, the food stylist for Little Women!!! She uses ONLY REAL FOOD on ALL her films, which she lovingly prepares in her HOME, and she is a single mother. She talks about the mile-high bowl of peppermint pink ice cream, marmie's birthday cake at the end, all the scones she baked, and so much more, it's a must-listen. https://cherrybombe.com/radio-cherry-bombe/behind-the-scenes-christine-tobin
I cried so embarrassingly and disgustingly. There was so much snot. i used all my tissues. I used all my napkins. I reused the oily popcorn napkins and still I had liquid running down my face, mixing together. My neighbor was polite but my mother, who usually cries with me, was horrified. I just started crying at my desk reading this. Thank you for listening to my horror story; thank you for sharing your feelings.
I’ve seen multiple people complain that it’s a little confusing when Beth is sick and the timelines overlap and it’s so hard not to be like THAT IS ON PURPOSE, YOU HAVE TO WORK FOR IT, YOU HAVE NO APPRECIATION OF ART and instead to nod neutrally and say “yeah, I can see that.”
Ok also a male friend of my mother’s acquaintance (not a romantic friend THANK GOD) saw this movie and condemned Amy as a “gold-digger” and complimented Meg on “marrying for love” and standing by John Brooke and I think he has NO READING COMPREHENSION and would fail the SAT, because the movie is very clear that financial security or insecurity is a huge factor in how hard or enjoyable life is, if you listen to what both Meg and Amy tell you you’ll see that!
Okay obviously we all like to say we're Jo but I have never felt more kinship with a character than when Jo was stuffing bread into her mouth and was just like "I don't know anyone" honestly ICONIC
If you saw Jo in this specific version and every line resonated and you thought omg am I aromantic asexual... yes, you are also aromantic asexual just like this Jo. lol
(I wouldn't say all Jos are aro ace, but this one in particular NAILED it. Exactly. Saying no because you think of a guy as your bro, then regretting it because you're so terribly lonely even though you don't love him but he loves you and it's so nice to BE loved, and then her attitude about writing the ending and understanding how to write a great romance even if it's not your reality, and the way she views marriage subconsciously as a death, the pairing of Meg's wedding with Beth's illness... the end rather than how everyone else views it as a romance or a necessity. And Amy is right, that it was more about economics, but Jo still has hope that she can make a life for herself without it despite knowing it will be a hard road without that in a world not built for girls like her.... The complexity of aromantic asexuality has never been better explained.
Reading through the thread what stands out to me is that the casting was critical and is universally perfect. In a story so familiar that we can all cast it in our heads, Greta hit every nail on the head, especially because she emphasized character in new ways we mere mortals wouldn’t have envisioned.
FINALLY I CAN TALK ABOUT THIS WITH OTHER PEOPLE! I've been raving about it for weeks and no one else I know has seen it yet. I've seen it twice and I rarely see movies in the theater twice. I also have no real attachment to the book (which I read once and remember almost nothing about) or any previous adaptations and I still think about this movie almost every day.
The first time I saw it, Jo's speech absolutely gutted me. I'm not sure I've ever identified more strongly with a character than in that moment. I did have to laugh a little at the audible gasp of surprise I heard in the theater when Beth dies - apparently this was not as common knowledge as I thought. I also had to laugh at Saoirse Ronan talking about being plain and homely.
"Are you hurt?" "I'M AMY!"
Jo and Laurie's dance. Beth's reaction to the gifted piano. Mr. Lawrence outside the house and Jo being his friend.
This movie is a gift that keeps on giving. I watched Lady Bird in between viewings and it is also wonderful for completely different reasons, so I am now a Greta Gerwig devotee.
Framing the movie as a love story between Jo and her ambition and creativity made me happier than anything. And I LOVE the narrative trickery that gives us the happy romantic ending but also says that maybe that’s just placating the audience because what truly mattered was watching her book get printed and bound 😭😭
I saw it with my mom and had Emotions about Laura Dern but also Amy. Beth was excellent and made me cry. I got literal chills during the book binding process.
The scenes of Jo finally writing the book were SO great; the shots of that little attic just covered in pages as she tried to get the structure right were REALLY effective.
Also the composition of the shots when Jo and Beth go to the beach while Beth is dying--just beautiful.
As I lifetime devotee of the 1994 Winona Ryder one I went in skeptical but somehow halfway through the movie I just started crying and couldn't stop? I think this one does a really fantastic job with them as adults, but my only quibble is that it was bizarre seeing Florence Pugh playing really young Amy. It kind of took me out of some of her scenes because it was a twenty something acting like a petulant child - but yes, absolutely agree that she is a revelation as adult Amy and actually made me care about adult Amy for the first time, and I am here for hot Professor Bhaer and maybe queer Jo and the emphasis on writing.
I have a deeply complicated emotional relationship with Little Women, because my high school & college job was at Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's house, so I lived and breathed LW & the Alcott story for years and adored every second of it, so this movie was a tough sell for me and I LOVED IT. (I am also of the 1994 movie generation and still tear up just hearing the soundtrack.)
A few observations of tiny little grace notes that made my heart sing, because they showed so clearly how much time and love Greta Gerwig lavished on the Alcotts themselves:
- when Jo is writing in the attic and shakes her hand out and switches hands - that is from real life, something Louisa taught herself to do so she could keep writing faster; she wrote Little Women (the first half of the story) in three weeks
- the little owl statue that you can see in the background of some of the scenes is directly taken from Louisa's actual room, she loved owls
- if you watch the background closely there are paintings & drawings all over the walls and that is accurate, especially the calla lilies in the background when Beth is sick
- Orchard House itself of course, so much of the look & feel of the house comes through though almost none of the scenes were actually filmed there - the house was recreated (as it was for the 1994 movie) and really gets so much of it right and that's important because those really are the rooms Louisa was imagining when she wrote the book (though most of the childhood events took place in other houses)
- IRL May (who is Amy) was actually on her way to becoming a recognized artist (she exhibited & worked alongside Mary Cassatt, for example) died shortly after childbirth, still relatively young, and Louisa raised her daughter, which, ugh is just heartbreaking and I think so informs the way that the Jo-Amy dynamic can be read. They did fight as children but were quite close as adults and I think a thoughtful interpretation (which is what we get here!) is that they were so much alike and were just complicated, not that they were polar opposites who would never reconcile (which some versions come down too hard on) So I have to think that really getting to know Louisa & May helped get the Amy in this version.
I'm happy to answer any other historical framing questions that people might have!
I ALSO cried from almost start to finish but I was in a packed-out theater in the second row and mostly just sat there trying to cry quietly, I am looking forward to buying the movie on Blu-Ray so I can watch it and feel my feelings as HEAVING SOBS in my own home the way God INTENDED.
Florence Pugh is.... divine. The first thing I saw her in was Outlaw King (2018) and literally said out loud to myself "she is definitely someone to watch." I never liked Amy so much but she TRANSFORMED the character and I actually found myself saying AMY MY LOVE while viewing gifsets of LW on Tumblr. Absolutely CACKLED at the "your one beauty!" line delivery.
Aside from that, it's just an absolutely gorgeous film - the cinematography, the way the story was told in flashbacks/present day interludes, the costumes, the hair, Laurie and Amy actually making sense as a couple that could be happy together (!) - but apparently all those things came together with no director, THE ACADEMY, Greta Gerwig who, I have never heard of her. (I am just a BIT salty about the Best Director noms.)
I also adored the parts that really made them seem like real sisters - like Jo going completely feral and jumping her when Amy admitted to burning her manuscript, for one thing, but also the girls just being silly together because that's what being a sibling IS, sometimes you want to tear them apart and never speak to them again, but they're also your best friends.
ahhhhhh I just got back from the third viewing and it somehow got better?? my new favourite amy thing is her telling beth "DOLLS don't get HUNGRY, beth!!!"
I love how Gerwig gave Bhaer to us both ways. Utilizing flashbacks made him seem much more a part of the story and not hastily dropped in at the end....but she STILL gave us the satisfaction of acknowledging how, yeah, he was totally dropped in at the end because Jo’s publisher made her do a romance.
Stray lines whose delivery brought me joy:
“Aren’t you ashamed of a hand like that? It looks like it’s never done a day of work in its life.”
“I said hi to the horses. They seem nice.”
“I would never have sprained my ankle. I have lovely small feet, the best in the family. But I can never go home again, because I am in such trouble.”
“You will be bored of him in two years and we will be interesting forever.”
NICOLE I WENT WITH FIVE PEOPLE AND NONE HAD READ THE BOOK OR SEEN A PRIOR ADAPTATION. I was robbed of the post movie dinner discussion I deserved. I loved it for all the reasons mentioned. I especially loved Marmee. Now being 58 with adult kids and BEEN THROUGH A FEW THINGS for the first time I connected with her character
Disclaimer: I have been a Little Women stan since before I knew what that meant. Louisa May Alcott (and Bronson) and I share a birthday and my little 7yo heart knew that was because we felt the same. My uncle lived in MA and one of my fondest childhood memories was going to Orchard House and getting to see the desk that LMA wrote Little Women at, and all the paintings and drawings that May did on their walls. My mom hated it b/c I insisted that it was fine to draw on my bedroom walls after that. I had paper dolls of the June Allyson/Elizabeth Taylor movie that I played with for years!
Anyway, all of that is to say that I am both the exact demographic and the worst nightmare of this movie and I LOVED IT. I cried through so much of it. Greta really does understand the themes of the book, that have mostly gotten washed over by the various adaptations. I think it was really wise to play with the chronology, because you've got a 24yo actress playing a 12yo girl and the fact that we meet her as an adult first is all the visual tool we need to make that cognitive leap gently.
I very much like that they also did a very broad swath at the costuming, an AIR of the 1860s/70s rather than actual period-perfect. It served the characters well while again helping us with that cognitive leap. Amy's costuming was especially perfect, and gave so much to the movie. I....have never been much of an Amy fan, and I came out of this movie loving her, so congrats to Florence and Greta, you geniuses. It was perfect to have Jo and Laurie wearing the "same" vest as well, a beautiful little visual clue that Jo doesn't want to marry him, she wants to BE him.
Also, usually Behr can fuck right off but like....................hello.
I'm running off to my therapist now, but I am still processing how Gerwig did Jo dirty by letting her write that letter to Laurie! FFS, she rejected him, she didn't love him, she was relieved that Beth wasn't in love with him, she suggested that Amy would be a good match. It's OVER, shippers.
The highest praise I can give is that I've loved Little Women as a book and through various adaptations for literally as long as I can remember, and in all that time, I've never once cried about Beth's death, until I saw this movie, and SOBBED. (I mean, I cried a lot in general, so I was primed for it, but still)
I have always liked Amy; thank you to Florence and Greta for showing the rest of the world why.
My crush on Saoirse Ronan grows with each passing day; a perfect Jo.
Also, the ENDING! The SUBVERSION! The big romantic scene in the rain (I have always loved the "my hands are empty" / "not empty now" exchange) PLUS the true romance of negotiating for what your work is worth and seeing your book come to be. GRETA! THANK YOU!
Also; the way Greta just had Beth walk into the Hummel house and close the door and that’s the entire scene and she is a dead person walking from that moment on was a stark and brutal and Midsommar-esque shot
WHERE IS HER NOMINATION
John Brooke 100% jacked it to that glove.
Can we talk more about the Amy/Laurie dynamic? This is the first version where their pairing make sense to me on a deeper level than "they're both hot people who enjoy the trappings of wealth." I thought this version made clear how lost Laurie feels and how much he likes strong, opinionated, take-charge women -- which is why he initially fell for Jo, while seeing Amy as a frivolous kid. It wasn't till Amy told him to shape up, and then revealed how smart and strong-willed she is in her own way, that he found her romantically attractive. Meanwhile, Amy has always had a bossy streak to her personality, which was thwarted at first by being the youngest of four sisters, and later on because she's trying to land a rich husband so has to act conventionally sweet and docile. But Laurie, unlike the other men in her circle, LIKES it when she's bossy. There's no doubt in my mind that even though Amy prides herself on being very proper and feminine, she's the one who wears the pants in that relationship. (Or, as my mom put it, "Florence Pugh looks like she could take Timothée Chalamet in a fight.")
However, when I explained this interpretation to a friend of mine (the words "power femme Amy and softboy Laurie" might have been involved), he told me that I had "ruined the movie for him" with this "incredibly cynical and un-romantic view of heterosexual relationships." So I'm posting this here in the hopes that someone else might agree with me in thinking that Gerwig/Pugh/Chalamet's take on Amy & Laurie is interesting and satisfying, rather than movie-ruining!
Hoooo boy that scene at the end? When Jo is telling her mom how she wants to be an independent woman but is also so terribly lonely? Greta Gerwig, stab me in the heart with your writing utensil of choice.
“You’ll be bored of him in two years and we’ll be interesting ALWAYS” is the way I feel about 90% of my friends’ marriages including my sister’s (hi Matt if you’re reading this)
This adaptation was the perfect one I have always wanted. My only sister passed away some time ago, also after a long illness. Yet somehow, despite knowing I was going to watch an adaptation of THE novel about a Dead Sister, I did not anticipate being so moved because I never "got" Beth before either. I wept into my Junior Mints. Genius.
I adored Laura Dern in this, too! Marmee gets to be as pissed off as I never knew I wished her to be! And I love that this adaptation puts their father in the canon of Bad Decision Dads of the 19th Century next to Pa Ingalls.
Also can we talk about the Meg Party Scene? I always felt odd about how that was framed in the book. The way it was written always made me feel that Laurie's condemnation of Meg's dress (and general desire to party down) was full of the weight of Authorial Condemnation and we were supposed to 100 percent agree with Laurie. I liked that here, it makes it seem more like Laurie is jealous other people get to flirt with one of his Sister-Mom-Girlfriends and maybe Meg has a right to be mad at him.
Florence Pugh SAVED AMY. Least likable sister became BELOVED to me. There’s only so many times I can see the book burning scene— it’s like Bruce Wayne losing his parents over and over— but I loved Jo being cradled by her sisters after trying to beat the shit out of Amy.
Also, adooooooored Mr. Bhaer. He matched Jo’s temper and with such an earnest frankness and was so gentle and intellectual and I looooved him.
YES Florence Pugh was fucking BRILLIANT but just as many props to Greta Gerwig's writing -- she GOT Amy the way no one (certainly including ME) ever has. And I too had never quite tuned into Chalamet, but there has never ever been a better Laurie, ever -- the character must have that tousled, needy, elfin, broken quality or he is NOT LAURIE. Ugh, Christian Bale was like a block of WOOD, a frat bro. BTW The Professor Bhaer problem ALSO solved for all time by Louis Garrel--and not just in the hotness (though: omg the hotness), because Gabriel Byrne too had the hotness, but did not have Bhaer's *heaviness*, his absolutely ponderous earnestness. In fact a young Byrne would probably have been a marvelous Laurie, so it was a total cheat in that 90s version. Here Gerwig made all that heavy, earnest humorlessness into EXACTLY what Jo (possibly) needed--the moment where he says, as if suddenly realizing--"has no one ever taken your writing seriously enough to talk to you about it like this?" just went straight to my heart. No, no one ever had. And if it was hard for Jo to hear, it was also just what she needed to hear. THRILLING, wonderful film.
In the book, Meg comforts Jo when she cries about her disastrous, selfless haircut; in the 1994 adaptation, it's Beth; in the 2019 version, it's Amy. The nuances of this shift inform the characters, with drastically different results. In this essay I will
I loved the timeline. It felt like when you open a present on Christmas and you already know what it might be and somehow you're surprised and delighted and it's just what you always wanted. Florence Pugh was fabulously miscast as a 12 year old but she was so hilarious and perfect that I didn't care that she was clearly 24 the whole time. The composition of Jo sitting down after rejecting Laurie? Chris Cooper sitting on the stairs listening to Beth? The way the whole fam just stares at Jo when Behr leaves? The way the March house was so drab on the outside but on the inside was colorful and joyful? The way Marmee composes herself before entering the room after the Hummels and the way Jo composes herself before entering the room after Teddy/Amy get married? I hope whoever wins best director gives it to Greta instead.
I also came out of it a hardcore Aunt Meryl stan. She was damn right. You cannot waste a tousled haired rich neighbor in love willing to be in love with any of THE FOUR girls in the house. Beth’s dutifulness killing her is so New England and made me so sad. But reading all these comments what I am really seeing are people delighted that a movie catered to THEM and answered THEIR questions and did right to THEM. Which cis white men get all the time, and we are getting this time.
I saw it with my mom, and when Bob Odenkirk came on screen she exclaimed loudly enough for the entire theater to hear, “Dennis Quaid!!!”
My two favorite parts are when Beth and Amy clink their pipes together and when Timothee Chalamet is standing on a chair for no apparent reason saying “there’s a girl”
Okay, the casting is perfect, and Florence redeems Amy in a way that puts the blood of actual Jesus to shame, BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GRETA MADE A MOVIE THAT VISUALLY REPRESENTS WHAT WRITING FEELS LIKE?!
The scene where Jo is laying out all the pages of her novel in the attic did me all the way in.
God I wept through the entire thing. You miss out on a bit of the pleasure of "just hanging out with the Marches as they grow up" which you get with the book, the way Gerwig has framed and edited it. But instead, she made a film about the end of childhood and one's yearning for it, and thusly, I wept throughout.
Saoirse Ronan was exquisite obviously but Florence Pugh was a revelation. Amy has been the character no nerdy girl could ever love for SO LONG and the scene in her studio with Laurie alone changed everything.
I enjoyed the sly little wink of ambiguity in the ending. Like, are we watching the REAL ending or the happy pat ending that Jo (/LMA) wrote to satisfy her readers? I thought Author Jo's final scenes at the publishing house walked a really interestingly metatextual line.
Also Florence Pugh had a REVELATORY YEAR, didn't she
Agree with all of the above. I think this is the best movie of the year, the decade, and possibly ever. As someone for whom the book was a big part of my childhood, I am STUNNED but what Greta Gerwig was able to accomplish with this. She saw what was great about the book and managed to make it better, deeper, more meaningful. They should give her ALL THE AWARDS.
My daughters, who have not read the book, LOVED it. We all cried like babies. I honestly can't believe how good it is.
Side note: Being firmly in middle age now, seeing this film made me I realize that I fell short of my ambition to be Jo March and yet at the same time will never, ever achieve Marmee status. It was a rough evening, emotionally.
I also cried the ENTIRE TIME. Chris Cooper as Mr. Laurence was everything, and every time he and Beth interacted I wept. Florence Pugh was a revelation. JUSTICE FOR MEG MARCH! The adaptation was so lovely and perfect and the music and everything.
I loved how really incompatible Jo and Laurie were in this one because they were way too synced up and hot in 1994 and definitely should have ended up together instead of Christian Bale ditching WiJona for a brand new Amy nobody knows.
In this it was like, well duh, Jo doesn’t want to marry this blousoned tree nymph, she’s gotta write a book.
I was an extra in the train scene (you can’t see me in the film) BUT Louis garrell SMILED AT ME, Emma Watson looked right at me and GG had a bright pink hydro flask ! I have never read the book but I just picked up a copy and I’m so excited to read it
Highly recommend the Radio Cherry Bombe interview with Christine Tobin, the food stylist for Little Women!!! She uses ONLY REAL FOOD on ALL her films, which she lovingly prepares in her HOME, and she is a single mother. She talks about the mile-high bowl of peppermint pink ice cream, marmie's birthday cake at the end, all the scones she baked, and so much more, it's a must-listen. https://cherrybombe.com/radio-cherry-bombe/behind-the-scenes-christine-tobin
I cried so embarrassingly and disgustingly. There was so much snot. i used all my tissues. I used all my napkins. I reused the oily popcorn napkins and still I had liquid running down my face, mixing together. My neighbor was polite but my mother, who usually cries with me, was horrified. I just started crying at my desk reading this. Thank you for listening to my horror story; thank you for sharing your feelings.
I’ve seen multiple people complain that it’s a little confusing when Beth is sick and the timelines overlap and it’s so hard not to be like THAT IS ON PURPOSE, YOU HAVE TO WORK FOR IT, YOU HAVE NO APPRECIATION OF ART and instead to nod neutrally and say “yeah, I can see that.”
Ok also a male friend of my mother’s acquaintance (not a romantic friend THANK GOD) saw this movie and condemned Amy as a “gold-digger” and complimented Meg on “marrying for love” and standing by John Brooke and I think he has NO READING COMPREHENSION and would fail the SAT, because the movie is very clear that financial security or insecurity is a huge factor in how hard or enjoyable life is, if you listen to what both Meg and Amy tell you you’ll see that!
Okay obviously we all like to say we're Jo but I have never felt more kinship with a character than when Jo was stuffing bread into her mouth and was just like "I don't know anyone" honestly ICONIC
If you saw Jo in this specific version and every line resonated and you thought omg am I aromantic asexual... yes, you are also aromantic asexual just like this Jo. lol
(I wouldn't say all Jos are aro ace, but this one in particular NAILED it. Exactly. Saying no because you think of a guy as your bro, then regretting it because you're so terribly lonely even though you don't love him but he loves you and it's so nice to BE loved, and then her attitude about writing the ending and understanding how to write a great romance even if it's not your reality, and the way she views marriage subconsciously as a death, the pairing of Meg's wedding with Beth's illness... the end rather than how everyone else views it as a romance or a necessity. And Amy is right, that it was more about economics, but Jo still has hope that she can make a life for herself without it despite knowing it will be a hard road without that in a world not built for girls like her.... The complexity of aromantic asexuality has never been better explained.
Laura Dern SHONE with the parts she was given. Pretty thankless role being Marmee, but dang did her anger talk with Jo get me.
Reading through the thread what stands out to me is that the casting was critical and is universally perfect. In a story so familiar that we can all cast it in our heads, Greta hit every nail on the head, especially because she emphasized character in new ways we mere mortals wouldn’t have envisioned.
Yes yes to all of this, but also the CLOTHES were amazing?!?
FINALLY I CAN TALK ABOUT THIS WITH OTHER PEOPLE! I've been raving about it for weeks and no one else I know has seen it yet. I've seen it twice and I rarely see movies in the theater twice. I also have no real attachment to the book (which I read once and remember almost nothing about) or any previous adaptations and I still think about this movie almost every day.
The first time I saw it, Jo's speech absolutely gutted me. I'm not sure I've ever identified more strongly with a character than in that moment. I did have to laugh a little at the audible gasp of surprise I heard in the theater when Beth dies - apparently this was not as common knowledge as I thought. I also had to laugh at Saoirse Ronan talking about being plain and homely.
"Are you hurt?" "I'M AMY!"
Jo and Laurie's dance. Beth's reaction to the gifted piano. Mr. Lawrence outside the house and Jo being his friend.
This movie is a gift that keeps on giving. I watched Lady Bird in between viewings and it is also wonderful for completely different reasons, so I am now a Greta Gerwig devotee.
Framing the movie as a love story between Jo and her ambition and creativity made me happier than anything. And I LOVE the narrative trickery that gives us the happy romantic ending but also says that maybe that’s just placating the audience because what truly mattered was watching her book get printed and bound 😭😭
I saw it with my mom and had Emotions about Laura Dern but also Amy. Beth was excellent and made me cry. I got literal chills during the book binding process.
omg how fortuitous i just posted this https://the-niche.blog/2020/01/20/amy-discovers-jos-ao3-handle-and-drags-her-in-the-march-family-groupchat/
Also mad props to the publisher’s daughters
The scenes of Jo finally writing the book were SO great; the shots of that little attic just covered in pages as she tried to get the structure right were REALLY effective.
Also the composition of the shots when Jo and Beth go to the beach while Beth is dying--just beautiful.
As I lifetime devotee of the 1994 Winona Ryder one I went in skeptical but somehow halfway through the movie I just started crying and couldn't stop? I think this one does a really fantastic job with them as adults, but my only quibble is that it was bizarre seeing Florence Pugh playing really young Amy. It kind of took me out of some of her scenes because it was a twenty something acting like a petulant child - but yes, absolutely agree that she is a revelation as adult Amy and actually made me care about adult Amy for the first time, and I am here for hot Professor Bhaer and maybe queer Jo and the emphasis on writing.
I have a deeply complicated emotional relationship with Little Women, because my high school & college job was at Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's house, so I lived and breathed LW & the Alcott story for years and adored every second of it, so this movie was a tough sell for me and I LOVED IT. (I am also of the 1994 movie generation and still tear up just hearing the soundtrack.)
A few observations of tiny little grace notes that made my heart sing, because they showed so clearly how much time and love Greta Gerwig lavished on the Alcotts themselves:
- when Jo is writing in the attic and shakes her hand out and switches hands - that is from real life, something Louisa taught herself to do so she could keep writing faster; she wrote Little Women (the first half of the story) in three weeks
- the little owl statue that you can see in the background of some of the scenes is directly taken from Louisa's actual room, she loved owls
- if you watch the background closely there are paintings & drawings all over the walls and that is accurate, especially the calla lilies in the background when Beth is sick
- Orchard House itself of course, so much of the look & feel of the house comes through though almost none of the scenes were actually filmed there - the house was recreated (as it was for the 1994 movie) and really gets so much of it right and that's important because those really are the rooms Louisa was imagining when she wrote the book (though most of the childhood events took place in other houses)
- IRL May (who is Amy) was actually on her way to becoming a recognized artist (she exhibited & worked alongside Mary Cassatt, for example) died shortly after childbirth, still relatively young, and Louisa raised her daughter, which, ugh is just heartbreaking and I think so informs the way that the Jo-Amy dynamic can be read. They did fight as children but were quite close as adults and I think a thoughtful interpretation (which is what we get here!) is that they were so much alike and were just complicated, not that they were polar opposites who would never reconcile (which some versions come down too hard on) So I have to think that really getting to know Louisa & May helped get the Amy in this version.
I'm happy to answer any other historical framing questions that people might have!
I don’t think I had realized when I was younger what a cautionary tale Meg is. DO NOT MARRY THE FIRST MAN WILLING TO GET PAST YOUR SISTERS O-LINE
I ALSO cried from almost start to finish but I was in a packed-out theater in the second row and mostly just sat there trying to cry quietly, I am looking forward to buying the movie on Blu-Ray so I can watch it and feel my feelings as HEAVING SOBS in my own home the way God INTENDED.
Florence Pugh is.... divine. The first thing I saw her in was Outlaw King (2018) and literally said out loud to myself "she is definitely someone to watch." I never liked Amy so much but she TRANSFORMED the character and I actually found myself saying AMY MY LOVE while viewing gifsets of LW on Tumblr. Absolutely CACKLED at the "your one beauty!" line delivery.
Aside from that, it's just an absolutely gorgeous film - the cinematography, the way the story was told in flashbacks/present day interludes, the costumes, the hair, Laurie and Amy actually making sense as a couple that could be happy together (!) - but apparently all those things came together with no director, THE ACADEMY, Greta Gerwig who, I have never heard of her. (I am just a BIT salty about the Best Director noms.)
I also adored the parts that really made them seem like real sisters - like Jo going completely feral and jumping her when Amy admitted to burning her manuscript, for one thing, but also the girls just being silly together because that's what being a sibling IS, sometimes you want to tear them apart and never speak to them again, but they're also your best friends.
Florence’s wicked CACKLE when Jo burns off Meg’s hair!
ahhhhhh I just got back from the third viewing and it somehow got better?? my new favourite amy thing is her telling beth "DOLLS don't get HUNGRY, beth!!!"
I AM ONLY DISAPPOINTED THAT SEXY VICAR JOHN BROOKE DIDN'T TAKE HIS SHIRT OFF
I love how Gerwig gave Bhaer to us both ways. Utilizing flashbacks made him seem much more a part of the story and not hastily dropped in at the end....but she STILL gave us the satisfaction of acknowledging how, yeah, he was totally dropped in at the end because Jo’s publisher made her do a romance.
Stray lines whose delivery brought me joy:
“Aren’t you ashamed of a hand like that? It looks like it’s never done a day of work in its life.”
“I said hi to the horses. They seem nice.”
“I would never have sprained my ankle. I have lovely small feet, the best in the family. But I can never go home again, because I am in such trouble.”
“You will be bored of him in two years and we will be interesting forever.”
NICOLE I WENT WITH FIVE PEOPLE AND NONE HAD READ THE BOOK OR SEEN A PRIOR ADAPTATION. I was robbed of the post movie dinner discussion I deserved. I loved it for all the reasons mentioned. I especially loved Marmee. Now being 58 with adult kids and BEEN THROUGH A FEW THINGS for the first time I connected with her character
I saw it this Sunday and was TRANSFIXED.
Disclaimer: I have been a Little Women stan since before I knew what that meant. Louisa May Alcott (and Bronson) and I share a birthday and my little 7yo heart knew that was because we felt the same. My uncle lived in MA and one of my fondest childhood memories was going to Orchard House and getting to see the desk that LMA wrote Little Women at, and all the paintings and drawings that May did on their walls. My mom hated it b/c I insisted that it was fine to draw on my bedroom walls after that. I had paper dolls of the June Allyson/Elizabeth Taylor movie that I played with for years!
Anyway, all of that is to say that I am both the exact demographic and the worst nightmare of this movie and I LOVED IT. I cried through so much of it. Greta really does understand the themes of the book, that have mostly gotten washed over by the various adaptations. I think it was really wise to play with the chronology, because you've got a 24yo actress playing a 12yo girl and the fact that we meet her as an adult first is all the visual tool we need to make that cognitive leap gently.
I very much like that they also did a very broad swath at the costuming, an AIR of the 1860s/70s rather than actual period-perfect. It served the characters well while again helping us with that cognitive leap. Amy's costuming was especially perfect, and gave so much to the movie. I....have never been much of an Amy fan, and I came out of this movie loving her, so congrats to Florence and Greta, you geniuses. It was perfect to have Jo and Laurie wearing the "same" vest as well, a beautiful little visual clue that Jo doesn't want to marry him, she wants to BE him.
Also, usually Behr can fuck right off but like....................hello.
I'm running off to my therapist now, but I am still processing how Gerwig did Jo dirty by letting her write that letter to Laurie! FFS, she rejected him, she didn't love him, she was relieved that Beth wasn't in love with him, she suggested that Amy would be a good match. It's OVER, shippers.
OK but Timmy was PERF as a spoiled man-boy who has slightly too many feelings for women to take care of, it was exquisite casting
The highest praise I can give is that I've loved Little Women as a book and through various adaptations for literally as long as I can remember, and in all that time, I've never once cried about Beth's death, until I saw this movie, and SOBBED. (I mean, I cried a lot in general, so I was primed for it, but still)
I have always liked Amy; thank you to Florence and Greta for showing the rest of the world why.
My crush on Saoirse Ronan grows with each passing day; a perfect Jo.
Also, the ENDING! The SUBVERSION! The big romantic scene in the rain (I have always loved the "my hands are empty" / "not empty now" exchange) PLUS the true romance of negotiating for what your work is worth and seeing your book come to be. GRETA! THANK YOU!