Little Women 2019
I have never had any interest in reading Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, but the movie is getting very good reviews so I decided I should see it. It is a well made movie, but very much a period soap opera. As much as it wants to be about empowering women, it is mostly romances with some family drama, and a little bit of a writing career for the main character, played by Saoirse Ronan. In order to make the movie more compelling, there is a non-linear timeline flashing back and forth across about a seven year period as the little women of the title grow up and marry. It is a simple trick that keeps the viewer on their toes. Not really my kind of movie, the performances are all very good, there is some interest from that period of time (the 1860’s in Massachusetts, New York, and elsewhere). The characters are all likable and you want things to turn out well for them. It was kind of fun seeing the movie in a theater full of women young and old and there was a lot of crying. It certainly packs an emotional wallop. For me it plays a lot like the Downton Abbey series which I watched all the way through, enjoying the characters and history, but never loving. This movie is similarly light and the soap opera stuff is not that appealing for me so I can only give it a B+.
Written: 01 Jan 2020
Owned on: Digital