Little Women's reviews
Media reviews
The Guardian
There?s nothing little about Greta Gerwig?s rich, warm, bustlingly populated and passionately devoted new tribute to Louisa May Alcott?s classic novel of sisterhood. She revives Little Women as a coming-of-age movie, a marriage comedy, a sibling-rivalry drama ? and perhaps most interestingly of all, an autofictional manifesto for writing your own life.
The Wrap
The various ?Little Women? films have become Christmas favorites over the years, with so many key plot moments taking place on Dec. 25, and this one will certainly join their ranks in that regard. But in an era in which sentimentality is a seasoning that filmmakers either shun entirely or employ with too heavy a hand, Gerwig crafts a work about love and family and devotion and empathy that is moving without being manipulative. This is a ?Little Women? for the ages.
Variety
Rather than telling the story straight through, the way Alcott and her other adapters have, Gerwig opts to shuffle the scenes, telling ?Little Women? almost entirely out of order, except for the Christmas letter from Father that opens the tale and the kiss that ends it. As in ?Lady Bird,? she and editor Nick Houy keep things moving at a quick clip, though skipping around in time is a mistake, making a plot Gerwig must have considered too episodic, or else too melodramatic for her taste, even more so on both counts ? as evidenced by the way that, in hindsight, it?s the emotional episodes we return to in our memories, rather than the overall arc of what happened to the March family.
The Hollywood Reporter
Aside from minimal use of direct-to-camera address, Gerwig foregoes fussy directorial flourishes, instead shepherding an elegant film in the classical mold, often with a painterly look. It's also pleasingly paced through its two-and-a-quarter-hour run time, with nimble camerawork and editing that suggest the vigor of youth and the urgent sense of discovery that comes with young adulthood.