Little Women (2019)

When it comes to film adaptations of single novels (those not part of a series), usually they usually have at most just one theatrical feature tailored to tackle the source material. It's not a rare trend in Hollywood for multiple remakes of an old movie to be done as seen with cases such A Star is Born, The Grudge, and Black Christmas. What is a rarity is a novel having more than one version made for the big screen. This brings us to one of those cases with the 1868 novel Little Women, which has been adapted seven times. The latest endeavor in taking on the coming-of-age source material was the 2019 version, which was written and directed by Greta Gerwig (best known in the directorial field for Lady Bird (2017)). The marketing campaign intrigued me by Gerwig's return to the director helm and some key actors caught my eye (particularly Florence Pugh since she had a diverse catalog of roles in 2019 that differ from one another so I wanted to see her third and final form for that year). I went into the auditorium knowing nothing about the novel itself and left it liking it but recognizing hard to ignore flaws severely holding it back.

What's it about? Taking place in the 1860s, the story follows a group of four sisters dealing with their own conflicts while jumping back and forth in time (7 year time gap). Something that's nice about this coming of age story is how the dynamic between the siblings carries the film well with some solid dialogue. The arcs they encounter offer something different from one another to avoid feeling too much of the same thing. The environment in the past when everything is shown in the warmer season allows for some decent setting that are nice to look at. As for the plot, two of the arcs are strong enough to keep the audience engaged throughout the runtime.

However, there are serious issues (possibly from the source material) holding it back from being a great movie. Because there are many points where the story switches from the past to the present, the pacing suffers terribly to the point where it ends up feeling longer than the actual runtime. While two of the subplots are strong, the other two (regarding the sisters relegated the least amount of screen time) are very uninteresting and rushed since those characters serve the plot rather than anything worth emotional investment.

How are the actors? In regards to the main story importance, the actresses to focus on are Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh. Saoirse gives a strong performance in balancing frustrations with the state of her life along with what's expected of women in their time and struggles to take care of her family in a leadership role. Florence is a delight to watch as her talents depict the playful yet elegant sides that mesh well with the jealousies and desires her character has. Honorable mentions go to Timothée Chalamet and Laura Dern due to the former's charisma mixed with his likable charm and the caring nature from the latter in their respective supporting roles.

Overall Consensus: Little Women is a pleasant crowd pleasing adaptations with solid acting, nice cinematography, and charming dialogue but suffers due to bad pacing and some lackluster story arcs. ⭑⭑⭑3/4💻 Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes PG

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Greta Gerwig. You have read the novel and want to see this take on it. You enjoy coming of age period dramas. You like seeing sisterly bonds in any kind of respectful media. You want to see how it holds up in awards season.

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Greta Gerwig. You have read the novel but don't want to see this take on it. You dislike coming of age period dramas.