Film

“Stone-Cold Masterpiece”: Critics Are Going Wild For Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’

"It watered my crops, cleared my skin, finished my degree and kept me hydrated. i loved every second."

by Joseph Earp  26 November 2019
Little Women reviews

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There’s always some trepidation around a big cinematic adaptation of a classic novel. So it makes sense that ahead of the release of Greta Gerwig’s new version of Little Women, longtime stans of the book have been starting to feel a little nervous.

Sure, Gerwig might be an acclaimed and beloved director — her debut, Lady Bird, proved that she could handle dramatic coming-of-age stories with nuance and care. But that doesn’t mean that it was always going to be a shoe-in that Little Women worked.

After all, that book is so formless — so beautifully shaggy — that it’d take a true talent to fashion it into something both reverent of the original and deeply fresh.

Well, never fear: according to critics, that’s exactly what Gerwig has done.

A Delight For Stans And Newcomers Alike

Even those critics that have faults with Little Women — and there aren’t many of them — admit that Gerwig is clearly a fan of the source text. David Jenkins of Little White Lies even opens his review imagining what the writer/director’s copy of the book might look like — he reckons it’s a well-thumbed thing, probably read annually.

“Little Women by Greta Gerwig is a formidable, meticulous literary adaptation because the connection to — and comprehension of — the source is palpable in every frame,” Jenkins writes.

Elsewhere, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gives the film five stars, and notes that its skill is in retelling the story with a vitality that brings the pleasures of the original into sharper focus. “This is such a beguiling, generous film from Gerwig,” he writes. “There is a lot of love in it.”

You’re Definitely Going To Cry

If Little Women is known for one thing, it’s the ability to come tugging straight at your heartstrings. And, lo and behold, it sounds like Gerwig has nailed the book’s carefully realised emotional tone, crafting a work that’ll have you tearing up like a whole punnet of onions have been sliced open.

According to Peter Debruge of Variety, a lot of that comes from the film’s good-natured, amiable quality. “[This is] a wholesome, kindhearted tale of generosity and good manners, where malicious acts occasionally occur … but not nearly as often as acts of charity.”

All of that culminates in one helluva final scene, which critics are carefully alluding to instead of spoiling. According to David Crow of Den of Geek, the film’s good-natured, warm spirit eventually “leads to one of the most inspired and thought-provoking final shots of the year. And for a story this oft-told, that is saying a lot.”

Florence Pugh For President

The entire cast and crew are getting rave reviews, but particular praise is being heaped onto Florence Pugh, who plays Amy. Though in some versions of the story, the hot-headed Amy is treated as an obnoxious quasi-antagonist, here, Gerwig and Pugh work together to make the character astonishingly likeable and important.

Bradshaw notes that Pugh makes Amy “much more tough and grownup than usual”, while Kate Erbland of IndieWire calls her performance “incredible”. In fact, Erbland even goes so far as to suggest that Pugh has totally reinvented the character. “She allows Amy to seesaw between the expected frivolity and real depth,” she writes.

Of course, that’s not so surprising for those of us who have followed Pugh’s career for some time — she delivered some career-best work as the lead in Midsommar. But it sure is exciting, particularly when critics start talking about her Oscar chances.

“Pugh has the tricky part, since so many find Amy’s personality off-putting, whereas she makes it possible to understand the difficulties of living in her sister’s shadow,” writes Debruge.

Sounds perfect to me.