But by the end of the novel, she is falling in the arms of Professor Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel). It is even one of the many grounds on which she refuses childhood friend Laurie’s (Timothée Chalamet) marriage proposal. In both the Little Women novel and 2019 film, Jo declares she has no desire to marry. Ronan’s interpretation thus comes across like a blend of Gerwig’s own sensibilities and Diane Keaton’s iconoclasm in the reconstruction age. Indeed, more so than even the amazing 1994 adaptation, Gerwig’s 2019 film pulls from Alcott’s own life for influence on Jo March. Gerwig has placed that conflict front and center in her movie adaptation that not only documents Jo’s growth as a young woman entering the world, but as a creative talent who breaks free from its patriarchal expectations… just as Louisa May Alcott did centuries ago. That friction between artistic and commercial sensibilities-and feminine creativity and patriarchal control-has always bedeviled Little Women and its fans over the last 150 years. In England, that edition was cruelly titled Good Wives-decidedly the publisher’s idea and not author Louisa May Alcott’s. On the page, this is a development that didn’t occur until Little Women’s second volume, published in 1869. Right from the outset, those familiar with the tale will recognize this is a very different version, beginning with Jo already grown up and living in New York City.
This is how Greta Gerwig chooses to open her sometimes drastic and always illuminating reimagining of Little Women. Dashwood condescends with the backhand, “If the main character is a girl, make sure she’s married by the end. Desperate to establish herself as a published author, and to support her family, Jo sells her short story and asks if she may inquire about sending in more work. He dismisses Jo’s prose out of hand as soft and preachy and offers her $5 less than what he’d pay a male writer for the same work.
Jo March (a sublime Saoirse Ronan) wants to be a writer, yet she is met with derision and suspicion by a New York publisher named Mr. The greatly terrible expectations men have for women, that is. The menace of great expectations permeates Little Women’s first scene. This article contains major Little Women spoilers.
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