LITTLE WOMEN

Here Gerwig has adopted a more feminist approach to the source material. The Academy Award-nominated director and screenwriter serves as both here as well and has chosen to tell the Louisa May Alcott tale in a non-linear fashion. She's also chosen to focus on Jo, not just her role within the family but society and the world as a whole, and the strength she has to muster to fight for her dreams and the will of women while also balancing her duty to her family and propriety. What Gerwig has constructed in her efforts is beautiful and inspiring, but does the original story suffer as a result? This isn't to say that Greta has forced or injected subjects, not at all. 'Little Women' is a multi-faceted and layered piece of literature, but for this fan, the appeal and love of the story always stemmed from the relationships and how they grow and change over time. As the story jumps around in this version, these relationships are not given their proper due and I was left wanting. It was also a massive sticking point for me that Amy wasn't portrayed by two actors. 23-year-old Florence Pugh, while wonderful, is hardly convincing as a 12-year-old. In her younger moments in the film, Amy is still written true to her age in the novel. Watching a grown woman behave as a bratty pre-teen was cringeworthy to watch. Having the role of Amy divided between two performers would have also helped better establish the differing time periods as the film moves back and forth. It often took longer than necessary to realise when we were watching in the moment.

Yes, this is the hundredth version of 'Little Women' to be adapted to the screen, so perhaps Gerwig can be forgiven for ditching the cookie cutter and creating for an audience with assumed knowledge. But a part of me still thinks about those who will be coming to this incredible story for the very first time like I did all those years ago, and it not having the same impact. The big moments in the film - be it love, loss or death - are no longer powerful but painfully inevitable because they're introduced from the beginning and then almost reverse-engineered.

I'm not discounting the new approached Greta has taken here. I personally think it's great and, in 2019, definitely poignant but it also shows too much respect for only one on-screen woman. I can't help but feel that, while serving one grand idea, Greta has caused a disservice to those other women in its wake.