The Latest "Little Women"

Before I talk about the latest movie adaptation of Little Women (created by Greta Gerwig), let me think about my history with the book.  I first read it during our family trip west, the summer after 5th grade.  Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, a book first made me cry, the scene where Beth dies.  I was the type of child reader who returned to favorites on a regular basis.  How many times did I read this book?  Probably not as often as the books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I also read Little Men and Jo's Boys, but I don't think I reread them more than once.

I hadn't seen a film adaptation until the one that came out in the 1990's, the one with Wynona Ryder as Jo.  I loved that film.  I bought a cheap DVD because the first time I watched it in the theatre, I wanted to go home and write all night.  I don't think I've ever watched it again.

I tried to read Little Women again after seeing that movie, but I couldn't make my way through it.  Sigh.

I had a vision of seeing the later film with my mom and sister, but our Christmas vacation wasn't a movie watching one.  I knew that if I didn't see it in the theatre I likely wouldn't see it, and I felt it was important.  I want movies like this women-centered one to be made, and if we don't go see them, they won't get made.  I know that the movies that I like won't last long at the movie theatre.  And I thought it might be the kind of visually stunning movie that should be seen on the big screen.

I'm not sure that it needed to be seen on the big screen--it was beautiful, as if it the whole movie took place in that magic time just before sunset, when the world seems shot through with gold and cinnamon.  But I think that would have come through on the little screen.

I enjoyed the movie immensely, but I do wonder if I would have loved it more if I hadn't heard so much hype.  I was glad that I had heard about the movie switching back and forth in time--the appearance of the characters doesn't change enough between scenes to cue me that the time change happens.  I do think it was a brilliant way to solve problems in the text, particularly the way that so many of us hated Amy.

I know that Gerwig took liberties with the ending of the book in making the ending of her movie, and I thought it was brilliant.  I loved the costumes and the scenery--breathtaking.  I wanted to live in those houses, read in the library, sip tea--and never leave that magical attic where Jo does her writing.

When I saw a preview, I wondered if the movie might be pushing the envelope enough to break the text.  For a minute, I thought that Laurie was being played by a female--could Laurie be a female?  When I first read the book, I found the naming problematic--my childhood self read Laurie as female, in part because of the name, in part because of the plot.  That tangle worked itself out as I continued reading the book, and I was open to a director doing more in that direction.

Jo doesn't strike me, in the book or in the movie, as gender fluid--she's not a male trapped in a female body.  She's weary of the ways that living in a female body limits her, but I don't get the idea she wants to be a male.  Jo doesn't strike me as bisexual, so much as she wants to be by herself or to stay in the land of childhood before sexuality makes it all so complicated.

The casting of Timothee Chalamet intrigued me.  I hadn't ever seen this actor before, so when I first saw the trailer, I thought a female might be playing the role of Laurie.  I thought that the slim wispiness of the body worked, the lush lips and the eyes that were made to be defined by the word "limpid."

I liked the way that Gerwig developed the relationship between Amy and Laurie.  Gerwig gave Amy and Meg a depth that they don't usually get to have on screen.

Of course I loved the depiction of Jo as a writer--the scenes of the book being made at the end delighted me too.  Did I go home and write all night?  No, I stopped by Home Depot to return the dehumidifier that was too small and we couldn't get to stop leaking.  Ah, the life of a modern woman!

Most of all, I appreciate the way that the film depicts how that there is not a perfect life, not for a male, not for a female.  We're all trying to make a way that's best for us. We're all trying to find that balance between our family duties, our creative lives, our need to sustain ourselves.  Some of us can do that better than others--some of us have more resources, some of us have better luck, some of us have the mental/emotional stamina that others don't.