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7/10
Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s nineteenth-century classic novel is not as revolutionary as it’s being made out to be, but it is vivid and inspiring, grounded by stellar performances.
The visual splendour of the film is by all accounts the star of the show. The screen is constantly either glowing or sparkling. At points, I would have preferred to turn the sound off in order to enjoy it even more. At times, the script feels like a rushed review of the novel’s events, often stuck in the habit of telling rather than showing, but the proverbial remarks are delivered in a way that makes them potent rather than fluffy.
Ronan is relentlessly captivating as Jo, expertly channelling her formidable willpower, sizzling creativity, stubborn temper and eventual vulnerability. Her chemistry with Timothée Chalamet as Laurie is electric, making it easy to get lost in the scenes devoted to just them. Florence Pugh gives a magnetising performance as Amy, on par with Ronan, though it would have been better if they had cast another actress for younger Amy as they did in the 1995 version. Eliza Scanlan conjures Beth’s aura of gentleness, and Laura Dern conveys Marmie’s practiced veneer of meditative togetherness well. Emma Watson’s failed attempt at an American accent is frustrating distracting, however, and she is unimpressive beside her co-stars – especially Ronan, who nails the regional Concord accent.
The intercutting of two timeframes is presumably meant to be a modernising element, but if viewers aren’t already familiar with the story, it may only have a disorientating effect. Even as someone who is familiar with it, I felt unsure what was happening when. It does add power to certain scenes by emphasising the parallels between life’s happier, innocent times and it’s bleaker moments, but it feels almost like spoon-feeding too, and isn’t quite enough to counter its complicating effect on the plot.
The film is branded as a modern take on the beloved story, but the only real touch of innovation or contemporaneity is in the ending. Without giving too much away, it is certainly very clever and makes the whole film worth the watch for it alone. It changes the story without changing it at all in order to fashion it into an undeniably feminist narrative, while also serving to emphasise the tentative yet constant link between real life and fiction. It is not by any means a bad adaptation, and the story seems to only be getting richer with age, so Gerwig’s revisitation of it should be warmly welcomed, as it is.
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