By: Sarah Khan
“Little Women,” a coming- of-age period drama directed by Greta Gerwig, was released in theaters on Dec. 25. The film is an adaptation of the classic novel by Louis May Alcott, and it stars Saoirse Ronan as Jo March, Emma Watson as Meg March, Timothée Chalamet as Laurie, Florence Pugh as Amy March, Eliza Scanlen as Beth March, and Laura Dern as Mary March.
The film, set in the post-civil war era, follows the lives of the March sisters as they try to navigate their lives within their family while trying to figure out what they want for their futures. The film accurately portrays the challenges of young women in the 1860s, as there were many obstacles to attaining a future that didn’t revolve around being a good wife or caring for children.
Each of the March sisters is a bright, passionate, and idealistic character, and throughout the movie I could truly empathize with the emotions of each. The dynamic the March sisters share encapsulates the experience you’d expect from a group of sisters, as despite their differences and occasional arguments, the sisters all stick by each other through thick and thin. The inseparability of a strong sisterhood bond is a concept that is shown through the mischief, laughter, adventure, and tears that the girls all share together. While Jo wants to be an author and is pertinacious, Meg is a realist and wants to follow a more
traditional lifestyle and raise a family, Amy wants to pursue painting and is headstrong, and shy Beth plays the piano. Each of the sisters has a different goal for life, which makes them all well-developed and individual characters, despite the fact that Jo is usually considered the main character. Jo’s narrative is the most controversial to the ideals of society at the time, as she wants to pursue a writing career in a time when female authors weren’t encouraged. Adding on to that, Jo is opposed to the idea of marriage, which is something that is pushed as an expectation not only to her, but also to her sisters Amy and Meg. Saoirse Ronan’s acting as Jo beautifully captured the raw emotion of frustration, drive, and determination that young women feel when they are continuously told by everyone around them to give up their passion to settle down and just get married. Jo embodies the image of a feminist icon, someone who continues to push boundaries and persists regardless of what others tell her. The movie sheds light on a common struggle in a domestic setting: living in poverty and wanting to pursue independence while also having the responsibility of tending and providing for your family. The sisters all approach this harsh reality with contrasting mindsets. Jo tries selling her stories to make money for her family, Meg gets married (though not to the kind of man she was expected to wed), and Amy begins to get discouraged about her future as an artist because she has the pressure of being the one to “save” her family through marrying rich one day. This is a conflict that resonates with people from all backgrounds and still continues to be relevant in modern times. It wouldn’t be a coming of age film without romance, which presented itself in the lives of Meg, Amy, and surprisingly even Jo, who had never expressed much interest in romance through much of the movie. There were various blossoming romances, but the most emotion-stirring one was the development of Jo and the boy next door, Laurie’s relationship, that grew from a friendship to a one-sided romantic pining that left viewers sympathizing for both of them. That being said, the relationships in the movie change in unexpected ways, bur resolve and fall into place eventually. Besides the beautifully acted narrative of the movie, the cinematography was also just as stellar, with gorgeous imagery that makes you feel like you are right there with the March sisters. Once I found out that Greta Gerwig, who directed the popular film “Lady Bird,” was directing the movie, my expectations going in the theatre were set high, and the movie did not disappoint. Along with the cinematic excellence that Gerwig never fails to deliver, the instrumentals of the soundtrack were whimsical and elegant, perfectly bringing the emotion of each scene to life.