Modern admirers of Alcott’s book must confront the fact that it cannot, by any means, be seen as a purely feminist text
EARLIER THIS year “This American Life”, an American public-radio show and podcast, ran a remarkable segment in a broadcast called “The Weight of Words”. Listeners heard the story of Shamyla, an ordinary American child who grew up in suburban Maryland in the late 1980s. But at the age of 12 she was taken on a trip to Pakistan, where much of her family still lived, and she was, in essence, held captive for years on end. She had one book in her possession: Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”.
There have been many adaptations of this beloved book over the decades. Greta Gerwig’s new starry film comes only a year after a BBC/PBS mini-series crafted by Heidi Thomas, of “Call the Midwife” and “Cranford” fame. Ms Gerwig made her solo directorial debut with the acclaimed “Lady Bird”, another coming-of-age story, in 2017; several members of its cast return in “Little Women”, notably Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Timothée Chalamet as Laurie and Tracy Letts as Mr Dashwood .
“Little Women” thus flashes back and forth in time over the course of its two hours. This is fine if the viewer knows the novel well, and perhaps Ms Gerwig assumes that everyone who sees the movie will be a devotee. Your reviewer’s companion, however, was coming to the tale cold, and never managed to get a handle on who anybody really was or when anything was actually happening.
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