Last night, Evan and I took ourselves off to see Greta Gerwig’s new retelling of an old beloved, Little Women. Originally written in two parts in 1868 and 1869, this is the latest retelling to hit Hollywood since 1994.
Prepare yourself – I’m coming out of the gate strong.
(drumroll please)
My Big Call: I think it is everything a film in 2020 should be, and everything we needed it to be. I think this movie will become, as they say, ‘one of The Greats’. The opening sequence made me nervous, as though I was in the waiting room of something brilliant being born. And I wasn’t wrong!
I won’t go into the plot too deeply, its an oldie and a goodie. If you’re of the generation who hasn’t known the novel by Louise M. Alcott growing up (or seen Joey put the book in the freezer in Friends) then I’m so excited for you. If you, like me, grew up knowing the tale, the new remake is incredibly invigorating. And not for a moment does it disappoint.
I didn’t want to talk about the finesse of the film making in a way that makes me sound wanky here. Buuuut…I did want to note that it is a brilliantly made film. With its touch of Titanic’s romanticism, Pride and Prejudice’s stoicism and Brooklyn’s bitter-sweetness, this film moved me in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. I walked out of the cinema and immediately proclaimed that I had not only liked it, but that I “adored it”. In keeping with my nature, what I actually might have said, glassy-eyed with both hands clutched to my chest was, “Oh Ev, I’d see it again right now” (cue eye-roll). I might as well have twirled my imaginary pleated skirt and bonnet right back into Cinema 8 and yelled “roll it again boys!”
But without jest, the film made me laugh with sincerity and pine for the scenery’s wide-open spaces (and maybe a life before iPhones, if I’m honest). It also had this incredible way of breaking my heart and then piecing it back together again all within a few scenes – the kind of perfectly pieced together line that is so heartbreaking and lovely it actually makes my chest hurt.
The casting is unparalleled, the costume design is fabulous and more than anything else, the script is so riveting and beautiful, I’m not sure anyone else but Greta could have done it justice. It is the created chaos of the scenes where the family are all together that encapsulate the magic of this film – a symphony of voices all speaking over one another, exactly how only a room full of a real family can be. As A.N. Devers wrote for Elle Magazine, “Little Women is genius. And Gerwig’s film might be the first to joyfully treat it with all the seriousness of that fact.”
And it would be remiss of me not to mention how bloody wonderful it was to watch a film where not only the protagonist is female, but almost ALL the leading characters are! Hallelujah! (also, Timothée Chalamet is a babe in a way I couldn’t see before he perfectly captured Laurie)
In saying that, I implore all you blokes to go and see it. It’s not like you can’t watch and relate to a film with a protagonist of the other gender to you – its what we gals have been doing for years! It is a film about family, about decisions, about love and art and finding your purpose and your passion. It’s also about how many different ways there are for a person to be. And that applies to all of us.
I can’t recommend you take yourself off to see this film enough! Truly. You’d be doing yourself a favour. Who doesn’t want to see a warm, spirited gift of a film? And if you’ve got no one to go see it with, heck, I’ll come along with you! I think this one might have a few runs at the cinema for me!
Photo - a still from the film owned by Regency Enterprises.