“Little Women” is directed by Greta Gerwig and stars Saorise Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen. Based off of the classic novel of the same name, this movie is about four sisters who navigate womanhood, love, and family in the 1860s. 

What drew me into “Little Women” was the vibe of the movie. I felt like I was in a cozy log cabin by a fireplace under a blanket with hot chocolate. This movie is very wholesome and comforting, with many characters in the movie that are just the best. This movie got me to really love these people and sympathize with their struggles. 

This movie was also very well made in every regard. This feels like it was straight out of the 1860s, the costumes and production design was top notch. I also thought this movie looked beautiful, the color palette really added to the cozy vibe of the movie.

I also loved the commentary on the struggles of women in this time period. All of the women in this movie struggled to make money, and interesting things were explored as a result. It illustrated how their sex made it almost inevitable for these people to have to marry into wealth rather than gain it themselves. From that point, the movie also commented on what marriage actually means: should a woman marry somebody they genuinely love, or should they see marriage as a strategic economic proposition?  

The ensemble cast was also great. I didn’t think there were any weak links, except maybe Timothee Chalamet. I will get to that. 

All that being said, I had problems with this movie. In fairness to the movie, I have not read the book “Little Women” and I was not familiar with the story before seeing this movie, which I’m sure drastically affects my opinion. 

One of my problems had to do with the time changes. Rather than this story being told linearly, this movie goes from past to present constantly throughout the movie. I could just be kind of dumb, but I struggled with this. I was sort of confused and it took me asking a smarter person watching the movie with me to explain what was going on. While this technique did lend to highlighting interesting parallels between past and future events, it was sort of lost on me because I had no idea what was going on. If you’ve read the book, I doubt this will be nearly as much of a problem.

Another problem I had with this movie was the story. I appreciate everything that this movie did, but I thought the story was sort of boring. This movie felt like a storybook where I was peering into these people’s lives, and I loved that, but that was because of the production design, costumes, and charismatic actors. Not the overarching story. 

This might be the book’s fault instead of the movie’s fault, but I didn’t like Timothee Chalamet’s character. There are multiple scenes he’s in that made me really dislike him. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it didn’t feel like it was intentional. If you like the book, you might not have this problem.

All those complaints aside, I don’t think you should put too much weight on my opinion. I haven’t seen the book before, and, frankly, I’m not the target audience. Despite all of my qualms, this movie is still well made, is a heartwarming experience, and is the only Best Picture nomination you can take your family to. Just make sure you read the book first. I give this movie a 3.5/5.