MovieChat Forums > Little Women (2019) Discussion > Feeling guilty for not liking it more

Feeling guilty for not liking it more


I'm supposed to like it because this is Noah Baumbach's girlfriend and I feel I should like it more than I do. The Beth sequences are really unmoving because Greta Gerwig doesn't believe in being "mawkish" (Larry David's criticism of Little Women on Curb Your Enthusiasm), so she presents Beth's bout with scarlet fever and eventual death out of chronological order so it isn't played for the tears it usually is, but presenting it in this way makes us utterly cold to her character so that we don't care when she dies. I can't even remember the actress's name. Timothee Chalomet is a very irritating Laurie and enacts the role as if on speed (witness his terrible dancing at the post-Christmas ball). I felt a little bad for Bob Odenkirk whom I always like because he was given nothing to do. Saorise---not tomboyish enough, not spirited as in the book, but a passable performance.

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Susan Sarandon makes the best damn Marmee of any version. Laura Dern should be able to play this role with ease, but the presentation of events out of chronological order subtracts from her performance.

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It's not a good movie, try watching the other movie versions (1949, 1994) instead as the characters, plot, story, etc are way better than this movie.

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Yes to what RGermain said. '49 and '94 are different, but both very good.

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Yes, I've seen every version I can find. 1933 version--you would think young Katherine Hepburn would make an ideal Jo but somehow the movie doesn't work

1949--just in terms of performance, June Allyson, though in her 30s when she made it, makes the most convincing Jo that is very close to the tomboyish character in the book. Margaret O'Brien and Clare Danes in the '94 version made the best Beths. Both of them earned their tears in Beth's death scene.

1978 TV miniseries-- some good things. Not as much of a tearjerker as some versions. I liked Ann Dusenberry as Amy.

1994-my favorite version. Winona Ryder is likable as Jo though not quite as spunkish as in the book. Best Laurie-- Christian Bale. Best Marmee--Susan Sarandon. Best production design and costumes. Best music by Thomas Newman.

2017 Masterpiece theater version - Maya Hawke makes a passable Jo. There was more of Mr. March in this version with the likable Dylan Baker, though Emily Watson made a cold and emotionally distant Marmee. I was impressed with Kathryn Newton.

2019 version -see my notes above

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