The screenplay was well written. It was a slow burn, full of context and depth. The themes around womanhood, marriage, finding a purpose in life and death were all shown throughout the story. There was strong character development for the majority of the cast so you really felt connected to the sisters. Although set in Concord, Massachusetts, during and after the Civil War, there wasn't much talk about the war which I felt was an opportunity missed.
Originally the casting was a bit confusing. Emma Watson, who played Meg is supposed to be the oldest but Jo, played by Saoirse Ronan actually looked much older than her due to the hair, clothing and makeup choices. Also when the script would jump back in time, there wasn't much of a difference in each of the characters looks. I felt like they should have casted younger people or done a better job in the makeup department aging the young women. There was also a huge lacking in diversity which was a bit of a disappointment, but given small community they were apart of I guess I could see why. With all of that being said I still think that all four women, Ronan, Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen, were strong leads, all unique in their personalities and they worked well off of one another. You really felt the sisterhood. Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, and Meryl Streep also helped to top off this impressive ensemble cast.
My only other critique was the usage time. There was a lot of back and forth in the decades, to give more context to scene, but at times it was hard to tell what era or timeline we were in. I feel like the story would have been equally effective if they just ran it beginning to end without all of the time jumps.
Overall Little Women is an engaging coming-of-age story that was heartfelt and at times heartbreaking. This was definitely worth the watch.
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