Little Women’s big-screen remake
Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of the classic novel has been critically acclaimed – yet she was snubbed at the Oscars
IT’S been a tried-and-tested favourite for years: the heartwarming – and at times heartrending – tale of sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as they navigate their way from adolescence to adulthood. Filmmakers, TV producers and theatre directors love it too – ensuring it’s made its charming way to screen and stage countless times over the years. So in the weeks before the release of the new movie version of Little Women, film buffs asked: did the world really need another adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s famous 1869 novel? It seems it does. The film has been packing cinemas ever since its Christmas Day opening, earning rave reviews and plenty of award nominations for director Greta Gerwig (36). So successful has it been, in fact, that Greta is front and centre of the latest controversy about women directors being snubbed so often by the honchos who decide the winners during awards season. Little Women was totally overlooked by the Golden Globes last month and didn’t receive a single nod. It fared far better at the Oscars with six nominations – but no best director acknowledgement for Greta. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences came in for a hammering and was accused of blatant sexism. “I don’t know what
you have to do to get a girl director an Oscar nomination,” one outraged fan fumed. “But it seems having a movie that’s better than [those that have been] nominated doesn’t do the trick.”
Laura Dern, one of the stars of Little Women, weighed in too. Speaking backstage at the Oscars, where she won the best supporting actress gong for her role as a divorce lawyer in Marriage Story, she declared, “If I could give this Oscar to Greta Gerwig, I’d do it right now.”
Greta herself has remained good-natured about the snub – for her, being able to breathe new life into the iconic story was reward enough.
She also wrote the screenplay for the movie, which was a privilege, she says.
“[Little Women] meant so much to me. I don’t ever remember not knowing who the March sisters were. Their experiences really became part of the inner landscape of myself – they felt like my memories.
“I think that who I became, in a way, was indistinguishable from what my experience of Jo March was. Jo was the first character who made me think I could be a writer.”
WHAT THE MOVIE IS ABOUT
The premise is the same: the four March sisters live in genteel poverty under the watchful eye of their kind mom, Marmee, while their father’s away fighting in the
American Civil War.
As the girls – each with her own personality, dreams and aspirations – grow up, they negotiate social expectations, love, loss and hardship.
Greta has put a modern spin on the tale, making several bold storytelling choices that make this adaptation quite unlike any other.
For a start the narrative moves between present and past. We’re introduced to the March girls in young adulthood rather than adolescence, with the sisters’ upbringing in wartime Concord, Massachusetts, unfolding in a series of flashbacks.
Greta also changed the ending to reflect a more feminist, modern sensibility. The result is a satisfying twist that, according to one reviewer, is almost too clever for its own good but allows Greta to remain faithful to the original plot.
“I wanted to give Louisa May Alcott an ending she might have liked,” Greta told oprahmag.com.
Empire magazine describes the film as “warm but never wishy-washy, cosy without being cutesy”, while movie site thestar.com calls it “charming, moving and even profound at times.
“Greta’s film stays true to the original classic while simultaneously updating it for today’s sensitivities.”