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Review: Little Women - 2019


Story - Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.

Cast - Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Rmma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern

Crew - Greta Gerwig (Director/Writer)

Runtime - 135 minutes

         

Women...

I am not knowledgeable enough about this book, I've never read it nor I have watched the many adaptations for TV and Theaters, this is my first interaction with this story. I am amazed at how endearing this movie and story are, it is weird to see many men hate the movie on Twitter, sure, this is a movie made by a woman (Greta Gerwig) to other women.

The use of two timelines, one in the past and one in the present is remarked by the color balance, the past is filled with hope, coziness, and a gold light cast in the lives of these sisters. The present, grim, cold, and blue show the hardships of becoming an adult and the hopelessness some of us have during this process of growing up.

Watching this movie filled me with so much nostalgia and perhaps some teenage girl sensations, the proposal between Jo and Laurie, my God... this is literally me but feminine. I am a bit of Jo and Amy, I love the arts, and I would love to fall in love but also I feel financially things are so difficult I may as well focus on myself.

Near the end I felt something was different in the ending, modernized, I immediately knew this was a new addition for Gerwig and it was. Showing both "fictional" and "real" endings of the character of Jo. Little Women was a semi-autobiographical book about the real author Louisa May Alcott, she never married or had kids and pursued her career as a writer, in her book she made Jo marry Professor Friedrich, in this new adaptation Greta depicts Jo writing the book Little Women and she puts in the book a fake ending marrying Friedrich while she stays unmarried in the "real life" end. Great way to tie both fictional and real stories and perhaps a way to make Alcott proud.

Little Women is a terrific movie, depicting the hardships of growing up as a woman in the 1800s, full of nostalgia, pain, love, and hope for the future, a future where any woman can follow their dreams, whether it is marrying the person you love, pursuing an artistic career or just be yourself in a world not made for you. Gerwig's direction is immaculate, and the cinematography by Yorick Le Saux offers us a rich environment where we can put our own memories and fantasize about living in such a beautiful place.

         

Final Score -5/5

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