The classic Little Women is transformed into a movie with a mixture of modern and old times with the director Greta Gerwig introducing time travel (back and forth 7 years). With the help of the dazzling cast, Gerwig creates a heartwarming masterpiece that expresses a story of feminism and family.

The 2019 movie version of Little Women jumps back and forth in time to display the relationships between the characters. The movie relies on the relationship between the four very different sisters: Meg being the oldest, Jo the girl ahead of her time as the writer, Amy the painter tired of living in the shadow of Jo, and Beth the selfless quiet musician prodigy. Gerwig manages to find a balance between their relationships with each other, their mother Mary March, and the boy next door Laurie, or as Jo calls him Teddy.

The movie opens with Jo, seven years later living on her own, about to hand in her novel draft to a publishing company. Throughout the movie, time jumps back and forth between all the girls together in their home and their lives seven years later. Gerwig excels at balancing the two time periods as well as providing romance for the movie’s audience to root for. In a movie review of the New York Times, the critic A.O. Scott carefully describes the depiction of time in the movie in tandem with the book: 

Laurie, played by Timothée Chalamet, a heartthrob many girls today admire, comes to appreciate and love the bond of the sisters and falls in love with both Jo and Amy over the progression of the story. Chalametactively memorializes the character Laurie in his confession of love for both Jo and Amy at different times in the movie. His declaration of love for them highlights the tension that exists between Jo and Amy over the whole of the movie, including one point where Amy burns Jo’s book in the fireplace. Gerwig carefully picks these scenes to demonstrate their conflicting relationship. While characters like Laurie and Jo are presented as essential to the contribution of the movie, other characters are overshadowed like Beth. What Gerwig could have done better is balancing the perspectives of all the sisters, since the movie focuses on Jo mostly. Beth, who is seemingly dear to all of her older sisters, is left out in much of the movie. However, the actors playing Jo March and the other sisters made up for the left out character of Beth with their love and appreciation for her character tested later in the movie. 

A recurring theme in the movie is feminism, particularly in Jo’s perspective. Alonso Duralde, a critic of The Wrap, expresses how well Gerwig demonstrates this important factor of the movie:

Jo talks about not marrying throughout the movie and resisting her love for Laurie because she doesn’t want to fall victim to society’s expectation of her as a woman. Gerwig manages to show how her point of view drastically contrasts from the other sisters, which itself is what modernizes this movie version of the classic Little Women. Saoirse Ronan, also known for her Go

lden Award won movie Ladybird, activates her character Jo’s passion for being more than society wants her to be. Jo’s dialogue throughout the movie purposely is more modern than it should be, portraying her as ahead of her time. Gerwig excels at showing how Jo’s and Amy’s different perceptions of marriage is what makes them at such odds, but also at expressing how they continue to prevail despite their differences.

This movie correctly displayed the important themes of the book Little Women. Like a writer, with her directing, Gerwig uses subtlety and humor to make the movie lively. Ultimately, the sisters’ bond and both heartbreaking and inspiring journey through their lives together with the time jumps makes this both old timey and modern movie worth watching. 

So grab a tissue box and popcorn during this time of quarantine and enjoy the emotional ride of Little Women.