Little Women

The Oscar nominated film Little Women, is a beautiful story set in the period of the Civil War. The film highlights the importance of the bond that family, specifically sisters have on an individual. But most importantly it showcases how women are much more than marriage and how in a society where only men can do anything that makes money, the women are forced to marry as a financial agreement not out of love. The main character Jo stands by this throughout the film as not wanting to get married because she is dedicated to making a living for herself. She wants to be a successful writer and does not want to conform to what was expected of women of the time. In fact she turns down the only boy she ever loved, her best friend Laurie. They love each other but she knows she could never be happy in elegant society or in marriage.




In the end Jo’s character gets married to Friedrich who is barely in the film. Honestly, I had forgotten about his character and when he returned I realized I didn’t really like him that much. It was a disappointing end to this particular film given the build up for Jo to marry Laurie. However, I think this shows what Jo was saying, that marriage does not equal success. Instead the marriage adds nothing to the story, showing how success in life as a whole is what the female character of a story should strive for. That is why the true end of this story is Jo watching the printing press as her book “Little Women” is being produced. Signifying that Jo has proved her worth and has done what she was so driven to do - that’s her happily ever after.




Besides, Friedrich was an off putting guy who had nothing to do with the story line. All he does is tell Jo her stories are terrible when they are in New York and then at the end surprises her in Washington. He really had no personality or real connection with her, then Jo gets married to him. It just did not make sense for the story. On top of that, the guy she should have ended up with, Laurie accepts that Jo will never marry him so he marries her sister Amy without even telling Jo first. Now that was a plot twist, given it is quite sudden it feels uncomfortable since he was so close to Jo for so much of the story.




Overall I really enjoyed the film, something about it is very intriguing. I think it is the ability for viewers to connect to the characters. The four sisters are very likable and have an unbreakable bond. They are all so close to each other and hold such strong connections to one another. It creates a fun atmosphere that sometimes makes you forget you are watching a movie. It feels like you’re watching people having fun. Honestly, I could not imagine how fun it would be to work on a set like this with such a close cast and fun setting.




Technicality wise, I really liked their use of lighting in the film. For me, you always can tell when something sad or darker is going to happen. However, I found the film jumps around the timeline too much and became hard to follow. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if events were from the past or present and by the time you figure it out, it was on to the next scene at a different period of time.