'Little Women' Honors Louisa May Alcott, But Also Diverges

Little Women has been adapted so many times over the years that certain images have become cemented in the public imagination: the family gathered around a letter from Father at Christmastime, the burnt manuscript, Amy falling through the ice, Jo cutting her hair to pay for Marmee’s journey. Greta Gerwig’s new Little Women movie contains all of these requisite scenes, but it reimagines the story as a whole by turning it into a poioumenon, a work of art about its own making, further blurring the lines between author Louisa May Alcott and her semi-autobiographical heroine, Jo March. Gerwig, who wrote as well as directed this latest adaptation, begins not with the familiar “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” but seven years later, cutting back and forth between parallel timelines.