100 Movies in 2020: #11, Little Women

The new Little Women movie is a masterpiece. Writer and director Greta Gerwig plays with the original book‘s story structure to reinvent the narrative for a new generation, turning it into a lively, luminous, thoughtful piece of art. Oh my goodness, go see it. Males, that includes you.

• Release: 2019
• Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothee Chalamet, Meryl Streep.
• Director: Greta Gerwig
• Screenplay: Greta Gerwig

You’ve probably heard about the film, and the raves are not wrong. Saoirse (pronounced ser-sha) Ronan is the Jo of my dreams, Florence Pugh redeems Amy, who typically comes off as a brat, and Emma Watson (Meg) and Eliza Scanlan (Beth) turn in endearing performances. Laura Dern gives Marmee the warmth she needs and Meryl Streep is hilarious as the feared and loathed Aunt March.

What works

Director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig adapted the novel very faithfully–almost all of the dialogue is lifted directly from the book–and yet it feels entirely modern and fresh. Modern and fresh are two adjectives I don’t tend to associate with 19th-century literature–the 20th century really did work wonders on the conventions of narrative style–so how did Gerwig pull this off?

If you’ve read the novel, then the first thing you notice in the film is that Gerwig breaks up the novel’s linear story structure, switching back and forth between two timelines. One starts in 1862 and one starts in 1868. Both move forward sequentially from their starting points. (And not that it’s difficult to follow the two story lines, but if you need a cue, Gerwig uses a golden filter on the earlier scenes and a blue filter on the later story line to help viewers differentiate. The movie is literally color-coded.) This decision to chop up the conventional chronological structure calls attention to the characters’ development in a thematic way, focusing on their ambition instead of their basic maturation.

Plot vs. story

There’s a difference between plot and story. Plot means the individual events that occur in the film and story refers to its larger thematic message. In chopping up the book’s plot, Gerwig reveals an entirely new story.

By cutting between the two, Gerwig draws attention to the repeated themes and events in the women’s lives and the changes in their ambitions over time. It won’t come as a surprise that this practice highlights Jo’s arc the most, but all of the characters benefit from this treatment.

Early in the story, the four girls state their particular ambitions:

• Meg anticipates marriage and a family, but wants money and servants so she won’t have to work any longer.
• Jo intends to be a famous writer.
• Beth wishes to have her family together and to play music for them.
• Amy longs to go to Paris and become the best painter in the world.

Amy is the character most redeemed in this story. Normally she comes across as a spoiled brat, but in this version she’s unashamedly ambitious, in the best way. And later in life when she’s confronted with her own failure to live up to the standard she’s set for herself, she sets a new intention: to provide for her family. In the clips below you see the golden scene from Amy’s childhood when Aunt March suggests to her she must take care of her family, and the blue-tinted adulthood scene when Amy makes good on her intention. (Note: the clips below are presented in the sequence they occur in the film, which obviously is not the sequence they occur in the lives of the characters.)

Fiction writing lesson from the new Little Women movie

Don’t be afraid to play with time and sequence.

If a story feels stagnant, or it’s not hitting the notes you want, try chopping it up. Reordering the events of the plot may be just the tool to reveal the story you desire.

• New York Times: This Is Little Women for a New Era
• Pro Video Coalition Art of the Cut: Interview with Little Women Editor Nick Houy