Why Gerwig’s Little Women Has Left Me Asking For More

It has been three days that I have watched Greta Gerwig’s brilliant narration of Little Women. And in these seventy-two hours, I have not yet completely recovered from Beth’s death, Jo’s inspiring and compulsive need to be true to herself, or how Meryl Steep’s Aunt March owns it when she says “I might not always be right but I am never wrong’!

I feel like Laurie will just drop in anytime and fill this space with his goofery. Three hours of watching vintage England and I am still feeling warm reminiscing Marmee’s smile! I repeat to myself her conversation with Jo where she simplifies the complexity of passionate, justifiable anger!

The friendship of Amy, Meg, Jo, Beth gives me a sense of sisterhood that I have otherwise never experienced in real life. All the March sisters are different in their dreams and passions but united with love! Jo might come across as the ideal, heroic one but all the sisters will leave a mark of them with their traits. Like Meg says, “Just Because My Dreams Are Different Than Yours, It Doesn’t Mean They’re Unimportant.”

As much as the film’s set-up and costumes transport you to the eras bygone, its context is very much contemporary; and it is very beautifully brought alive in a scene where Marmee admits to Jo about the mask that she is forced to put on every day of her life. She speaks of how she has earned this patience over the years by having to face it every day! This conversation is one of the best examples of honest writing that this film is crafted with!

Strong women with honest and strong opinions make it a story you want to watch again and again. You see it in Meg’s unapologetic, conscious desires of the domestic, familial life. It also reflects in Amy’s fearless, defiant attitude in going after what she wants. The concept of feminism is clarified to the world once again when Jo says, “Women Have Minds And Souls As Well As Just Hearts, And They’ve Got Ambition And Talent As Well As Just Beauty. And I’m Sick Of People Saying That Love Is All A Woman Is Fit For.”

Overall, Greta Gerwig’s take on Little Women is a timeless masterpiece about youth, expectation vs. reality, ambitions and a true sense for feminism!

P.S.- I ended up writing this piece because like Jo says, “Writing doesn’t confer importance, it reflects it.

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Originally published at http://worditvoiceit.wordpress.com on May 15, 2020.