#marmee march

I loved Greta Gerwig’s version of Little Women, I literally saw it twice back to back in the cinema. There are many reasons why it is a great movie (the structural approach that Greta takes and its fluidity, the fusion of Jo and Louisa herself, the realness of each character), and these reasons have been explained endlessly already, but I was really fascinated by Greta saying in many interviews that to her it’s about being a woman and making art and reconciling that with the need for money and independence. And to me that right there is why Little Women is a great movie: it speaks to everyone on a personal level. To her that is the main theme, and I imagine it’s because it’s relevant to her and to her career and what she is going through right now. I see those themes and I understand them, but to me that is not what the movie is mostly about. To me, it is about growing up, and being in that period of your life when the dreams and hopes you had as a child should start becoming realities, and whether they do or they don’t. It’s about reconciling the person you thought you would become and the person you actually became, and intertwining 1861 and 1868 enhances the vividness of the comparison. It’s about relationships changing, and grieving not only for the relationship itself or for the other person, but for the person you once were when you were with them. It’s about self-doubt, and not knowing whether what you feel you need to contribute to the world is actually valuable, and it’s about making your own way in the world but also wanting to be loved. To me, it’s about all of those things, because this is how I feel right now in my own life. To someone else, who is going through other experiences, it might be about something different. And that’s why this is a movie I can’t wait to watch again as I get older.