Chopping up the timeline

I never read the book or watched any other adaptation. I read people's comment about the timeline so I expected to be confused as if I were about to watch Tarkovksy's Mirror. You have to be an idiot to no be able to follow the story.

My wife and I just watched it. Neither of have read the book, though my wife had seen one of the earlier film versions. The timeline jumps were a bit of a jolt each time, and it took a few moments for us to reset. But we felt it made us work just a bit harder for no good reason. Still, a very enjoyable movie.

I liked the way the timeline jumped. I'd heard about it beforehand and didn't think I would because it sounded gimmicky - but it worked for me. I did know the story well beforehand, books and various adaptations so perhaps that made it easy for me?

Couldn’t agree more. It’s a real shame, because this had the potential to be very good, maybe even half as good as many breathless critics have declared it to be. But the decision to edit it into flashbacks and flashforwards really chopped it up into a rather confusing mess. I really wonder if this was Gerwig’s original intent, or if it was a late decision made in the editing process out of some kind of concern that the linear narrative is too staid.. I suspect the latter. If it had been intended all along, I think there would have been more choices made with hair and so on to more clearly delineate the different time periods.

It’s not that I can’t handle nonlinear storytelling — to the contrary. I mean, “Pulp Fiction” is one of my favorite films, after all. But it just doesn’t work here, which is probably why the original source book was not written this way.

Still, the acting, costuming, production design, etc. are all lovely and keep the film from being a total disaster.