Abigail Abraham

I absolutely loved Lady Bird and have been a fan of Greta’s work for a while. I hate that I felt disappointment after leaving the theatre—I am a fan of the source material and a fan of many members of the star-studded cast. In defense of the cast, and what merits this film one of its stars, is that they stuck to Greta’s vision. What Greta imagined was a more realistic, grounded portrayal of family life in the Civil War era that was joyous and exuberant and youthful despite the turmoil throughout the rest of the country. These “Little Women” served as a beacon of hope for the good in people, and the virtuosity and diversity of the woman. Saorise Ronan executed this well, as did Emma Watson and even Timothée Chalamet. Concerning Chalamet and Florence Pugh, they were melodramatic at times, yes, and Pugh’s portrayal of young Amy was unnerving and befuddling, but I feel this was a choice made by Greta rather than the actors because I have seen both play understated characters incredibly well. This youthfulness translates well to the screen. I feel the reason why many felt they were unable to feel moved by this movie is primarily its structure and where it fundamentally went wrong. It did not begin linearly; rather, it began in the middle and switched from present to past. This made certain revelations and events in the story underwhelming because the scenes in the present already revealed the outcome. This also made it difficult to register character development because we see the characters after they fully developed, taking away the sense of pride audiences ought to feel after seeing how hardships and mistakes have strengthened each girl’s character. Further, this movie is a period piece—one of the few genres which allow, if not promote, a film to TAKE ITS TIME! This film felt like a whirlwind—switching from past to present to past again. Every tension was stunted by undeserved revelation. Every second was filled with chatters, and the few moments of stillness were not long enough. The curse of wanting a film to be youthful is that it exhibits every quality of youth, including restlessness. The messages the film intended to present were given blatantly through dialogue rather than shown. This resulted in the film’s few feminist moments to feel preachy, which I feel ultimately is a detriment to the cause. A film that I compared this to in my mind was Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette.” Not to pin two female directors against eachother, but I feel Coppola managed to fulfill certain areas where Gerwig lacked, such as pacing and character development. This also may be due to that film being simpler, but nevertheless Coppola achieved both youthfulness and subtlety. I haven’t seen the other Little Women films, but if they are structured linearly I feel they are more worth a watch. The efforts were clearly noble but very flawed and unsubtle execution.