Overall, I love what this version does with the character of Jo March. For the first time, Jo’s feelings for Laurie are clear, more accurately reflecting Alcott’s view of things. In the book, Jo is repeatedly clear that she thinks of him more as a brother, while in the previous films there seemed to be a lot of flirting and mixed messages. Winona Ryder’s Jo, in particular, let Christian Bale’s Laurie kiss her and generally seemed to be making eyes at him throughout. Maya Hawke’s Jo is clear what she wants and doesn’t want from Laurie. Masterpiece posted a very interesting video of the actors and the screenwriter discussisng the subject:
This version also gets Jo’s relationship to Professor Bhaer right. In the previous films, Jo changes completely when she meets him in New York, turning meek and looking doe-eyed at him. Hawke’s Jo remains herself and even stands up for her thriller-writing when he criticizes the genre (without knowing that she wrote such stories). This version also shows the intellectual charge between them. But this Bhaer, played by Mark Stanley, is much younger than any previous Bhaer. Stanley is only thirty, while the professor is supposed to be pushing forty. He is also the first to be (appropriately) bearded. Maybe best of all, though, is that he is the first to have a real German accent. The first two sounded Italian, perhaps because Hitler had made German such an unsavory language. A comparison:
1933: Hungarian Paul Lukas (39)
1949: Italian Rossano Brazzi (33)
1994: Irish Gabriel Byrne (44)
2018: English Mark Stanley (30)
The last thing this version really gets right about Jo is that she is allowed to have her career develop without the assistance of Professor Bhaer. In the three previous films, he helps her get her novel published, at the end, which is called “Little Women” in some versions. Whaaat? In the book, as in the Masterpiece adaptation, Jo publishes a novel before she even meets Bhaer (although it is not simply a “failure” as Jo says here) and she later helps assuage her grief over Beth’s death by writing her poem “My Beth,” which gains her a wide audience and brings Professor Bhaer to her in the end. Bravo Heidi Thomas for restoring Jo’s career to her!
Marmee also continues to be represented as a full, complex character, who here has a moment of deep sadness mixed with joy upon seeing her beautiful daughters all grown up and ready for Meg’s wedding. When Meg has her babies, Marmee is there to help her with the birth and the emotional burden she now faces. Marmee also breaks down upon realizing that Beth is dying and asks Jo to help her bear it, the roles becoming reversed for mother and daughter (as they certainly did in real life for Abigail and Louisa Alcott). I just love how much Emily Watson’s Marmee is developed in this version, no doubt due to Heidi Thomas’s own view of reading Little Women as an adult. She has said,” “The real joy of revisiting the book for this adaptation has been the fact that I used to stand in Jo’s shoes–and now I stand at Jo’s shoulder, in Marmee’s shoes, with a totally different perspective.” That definitely happens for many readers who revisit the book after having their own children.
The greatest disappointment to me of this version of Little Women was the portrayal of Amy. She was allowed none of the maturation she experiences in the book or in the previous films. She was flattened into a spoiled, impetuous child who has none of the depth of Alcott’s Amy, making it impossible not to want to strangle her every time she appears on screen.
Many people on Facebook and Twitter regretted that the show felt so rushed, even though, at three hours, it was longer than the earlier films. It’s true that many important elements of the story were missed and that the novel would be best adapted as a miniseries. Hint, hint to any producers out there. (The BBC made a 9-part series in 1970 and NBC made a 2-part, 4-hour series in 1978. I discuss them both, along with the major film and stage adaptations, in my forthcoming Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters.)
In the final analysis, no film can really capture the texture and nuance of the novel. Little Women is a big book, encompassing the coming-of-age stories of four girls and one boy on two continents. The best antidote to post-adaptation disappointment is simply to re-read the book.
[Some good news: The new deluxe, anniversary edition of Little Women that I have edited for Penguin Classics will be available in early June! It includes a preface by Patti Smith, an introduction with no spoilers, contextual essays, and an extensive glossary. I will be announcing it here as soon as its available to purchase. Here is what the fabulous new cover looks like.]
