Academy Awards’ Special: Little Women

Follow our Academy Awards special, this time with Little Women. This is an adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic, directed by Greta Gerwig, which also directed Lady Bird, with which she was also nominated in several categories of the Oscar awards. Starring these days top actresses: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanen. In secondary roles we will see the heartthrob of the moment, Timothée Chalamet, and the nominee for best supporting actress for her performance in Marriage Story, Laura Dern.

Also read: Academy Awards' Special: Marriage Story

The argument

Little Women tells the story of four young ladies in the context of the United States Civil War. Although this is the background scenario, little or nothing girls relate to the theme of war. The film shows the growth of the four sisters through two chronological lines seven years apart. Thus, we see their aspirations and dreams when they are girls and if they reach them or not when they are adults.

The protagonist is undoubtedly Jo, played by Saoirse Ronan, the oldest of the four little women, who wants to be a writer and who Laurie, played by Timothée Chalamet, friend of the little women, is in love with. It is seen in the film how Jo's aspiration to be a writer often goes against what is expected of a woman at the time but with perseverance can be achieved.

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A critic

The film, however, seems not to decide between Jo and the others. That is to say, although Jo is the protagonist, it can be noted how her director did not want to neglect the other three sisters either, so she writes for them a story that only serves as a backdrop to Jo's but also has less focus.

Thus, the film seems made by someone who loves the book and wanted to tell everything about it and not by someone who wanted to make a film about a specific topic. The film, then, travels from one character to another in the two simultaneous narratives that can confuse the spectator and whose leaps in time are also boring for those who watch it.

The tone, moreover, is an exaggerated enthusiasm. The little women smile even in the moments of poverty and misery they have to witness. They are always in a good mood except for a couple of scenes, perhaps the most interesting in the movie. You can see the love of Greta Gerwig for the book whose adaptation she directs but perhaps it is necessary that the film revolves around a central theme, that there is a conflict, a knot that is then resolved, and not four separate stories. It will definitely not be the movie of the year.