This movie is fantastic. Easily one of my favorite movies of the year.
Hell, it’s January 1, 2020, and I fully expect to be on my Top 10 of the decade in 10 years. (Is it a 2010s movie, or 2020s?)
How the hell did SAG not nominate anyone of this cast?
As the gold leaf is brushed away at the end, you can (barely) see the title reading Little Women by Jo March.
What a fantastic film.
I would say just sneaking under the wire for a 2010s movie.
A decent amount I still haven’t seen, but 2019 ended up being quite a good year for movies.
I can’t get over how well Gerwig’s structure choices worked in this film to reinforce the character’s predicament. Without even relying too heavily on obvious lighting to indicate past and present, she used elegant camera movements and subtle musical cues to assure the audience would never feel lost. Such a strong writer-director. The performances play a huge role in this, too, with Florence Pugh’s Amy being the stand out for me, though Saoirse Ronan was predictably awesome. The only performance that left a little underwhelming to me compared to Armstrong’s adaptation was Beth. Eliza Scanlen didn’t leave the same impression as Claire Danes uber emotional farewell did, but it still totally worked. The scene at the beach with the sand rushing towards the camera as she encourages Jo to keep writing was so beautiful. The carriage ride towards the train station was movie magic, and I loved how playful Gerwig treated that scene by cutting to that hilarious Tracy Letts demand. More heartfelt films like this please!
I found the color correction differences between past and present very obvious and a little on the nose, but i worked as a colorist in another life, so its probably professional deformation.
The actresses are in a state of grace in this. Retrospectively, i wish this had been 30 minutes longer so sone scene would hace been given more space to play.
What a cool job! You’re most likely right, but as a viewer, what impressed me most was how rather solely relying on that as a sign of what era you’re in, Gerwig would support the switch with a clever, unobtrusive camera move. There one scene where Jo’s heading towards the left hand side of the screen as the camera tracks alongside her, and then it cuts to the March sisters walking left years earlier that effectively changed the tone considerably without feeling jarring.
I couldn’t agree more about the actresses. It was also great to see Timothee Chalamet pout around in his big coat. The “who is this man?” moment when Friedrich arrives was hilarious.
This movie is so good, and Gerwig is one of the best directors in the business today.
Same things as everyone else, faithful yet refreshing, excellent cast, and due to the way it is structured, you get more out of it than a typical recreation.
It is genius, chopping up the narrative allows the story to remain faithful, but presents the audience with a new and unique perspective on the events.
As a former teen boy who read the book, and saw the previous adaptation, this version truly supplements the source material, rather than just copying it.
Gerwigs take on Amy, and Florence Pugh’s incredible acting transformed the character from antagonist(ish) to a fully fleshed out human character. So good!
So, what I am saying is that the Golden Globes are absolute bullshit for not even nominating Gerwig. It is a fucking joke, and the HFPA should be ashamed.
Agreed. It’s a fantastic movie. Gerwig’s telling of the story is a work of art.
Then again, these yearly awards are mostly bullshit. Most don’t pass the test of time.
Just saw this last night. Just loved it. Every 7 minutes I was welling up over some perfect scene or line, and the photography was unbelievably gorgeous.
It’s not perfect, by any means. I found some of the editing choices distracting…certain scenes needed more time to breathe. Occasionally it felt a little choppy. Considering it was already over 2 hours, I suppose some stuff had to go.
All in all, though, a near-perfect gem. Clearly, I’m going to have to read the book now.
Yes! I did the same. Sometimes it was motivated by the characters and story while other times it was just, “THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL!”
I sort of agree but I loved how this style arrived deep into the film and the whole thing started to feel like a blend of nostalgia or memory along with the creative process. Not unlike all the pages Jo lays out in the attic as a work-in-progress. It moves this thing past traditional adaptation and into the realm of bold, personal film-making. At the Q&A, she listed a variety of surprising films as influences, like Meet Me in St. Louis, Reds, and Heaven’s Gate.
Here’s a link I just found on that very subject…
Yeah, me too. I don’t know what has happened to me, but I get teary-eyed all the time at stuff. I dread the day I open up a Hallmark greeting card and get teary-eyed. I may have to ask to be put in a home when that happens. I can’t watch Call the Midwife without rubbing my eyes a half dozen times.
This echoes my wife’s criticisms; she’s a big fan of the book.
She thought all the characters looked like they came from California rather than New England, and that the intersecting timelines, while they allow this adaptation to focus more on the later chapters in the book that might get short shrift in previous adaptations, don’t allow the relationships among the girls to be evoked successfully.
It’s always hard to adapt a full novel to a single two hour film. A mini-series might be a better match.
Interesting. Not sure I understand this criticism.
Is it based on previous period filmmaking and our expectations thereof, or does it have a factual basis?
We saw this the other day and (for the most part) enjoyed it.
I had never read the book or seen another film adaptation, so I pretty much went in blind. I enjoyed the story, I thought the acting was top-notch, and I really liked the unreliable-narrator ending. My 18-year-old daughter likewise loved it.
My wife, who both read the book and has seen a couple different movie or TV versions was less sanguine. She didn’t like the time-hopping, and she wasn’t too fond of the ending. She also thought that two of the sisters (Emma Watson’s Meg and Eliza Scanlon’s Beth) had their stories so truncated that they were reduced to cardboard cutouts.
My only real criticism was that although the makeup team did a pretty good job of making the actors look younger and older in the various time-jumping scenes, even their magic couldn’t make Florence Pugh’s Amy look like a 12-year-old. The scenes where she’s supposed to be a bratty little sister frustrated at not being able to go on dates with her older siblings just felt “off”. But that’s minor quibble – Pugh’s acting generally sold the age difference once the dialog started, it just meant a couple moments of me going “wait, how old is she supposed to be here?”
The Barbie thread encouraged me to finally seek this out.
I was very tentative at first. The movie really throws you into the deep end. What war are they recovering from? Who are these people? Oh we’re in a flashback now. Now we’re back to the “present”? Wait, this lady is in Paris? Where was the other lady? Oh, this is New York? What is going on?
But it all coalesces nicely into a narrative once the flashbacks become more prominent than the “present”. And all becomes clear.
The moment when the movie really sold me is when Amy is so mad at Jo for not taking her to the play, she burns her book that she’s been writing. I mean, holy shit you guys. How can you not be sold on the drama after that? I was totally in after that.
The ending weirded me out. Did she go after the professor or not? Was that just written for the publisher only? Well it worked, it made me and my mom really happy with the ending, but also kind of tentative since that part seemed to be made up for the book. So that’s not what happens in the book then?
Overall I really enjoyed it. What fantastic drama, great characters, great work all around by everyone.
Yes, the ending is intentionally hokey and happy for the sake of the publisher and also the audience if they would rather everyone get a “good” ending.
Nice. That makes me want to read the book.
Please read it.
I only discovered it a couple of years ago (like FFX, ha!).
I only read the first volume, as I thought leaving the characters there was beautiful (like in FFX, ha!).
Please read it. Or at least give it a try.
I came here by mistake, as I didn’t watch the movie nor have any intention to watch it. Good bye.