I admit, I wasn't too impressed by Greta Gerwig's Ladybird. I found Little Women a whole other level of a movie. It's not just that the source material provided a much more colorful story. It's not just that the March sisters seem to be richer characters than Ladybird's decidedly bland heroine. To me with this film Gerwig emerged as a master storyteller and a true auteur. I loved how instead of following chronological order, she presented the story as more of a memory stream. Even though constant time jumps were confusing at first, especially since the characters didn't change much, I thought it made the movie more engaging and somehow more relatable. It created some incredibly poignant moments, like the two times Jo (Saoirse Ronan) wakes up and doesn't find Beth (Eliza Scanlen) in her bed. And I got that strange and wonderful feeling like I was in the midst of it rather than outside looking in. Even bits like when Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts) tells what he wrote to Jo directly to the camera rather than as a voice over, that in a different movie would seem like a gimmick, here felt perfectly organic and gave the film a little extra kick. The entire sequence that moves between Jo negotiating her fate with him and living it is pure brilliance. The cast is great in a way that goes beyond just being able to portray complex emotions. What struck me the most was that by the end I found myself in love with every single character. Not because they are saintly, but because they are human. Alive. Warm. Even Meryl Streep's Aunt March is lovable because it's clear that behind everything she says, she cares deeply about the girls.
There was only one thing that bugged me a little - too little difference in the sisters' appearance between the two time periods. It ultimately worked anyway, except for Amy. Florence Pugh is a fantastic actress and she did a great job making Amy act like a 13 year old. But she just didn't look like a 13 year old, especially next to her older sisters. I kept wondering why she was always left behind, why she needed Jo to take her ice skating, and how it was that she couldn't understand why Jo stayed mad at her after what she'd done. It also made Laurie's (Timothee Chalamet) sudden change of heart about her hard to buy.
