Digital Media Review Assignment & Rubric

 

 

Clay Romero 

Professor Cori Spillane 

Eng 160 Rough Draft 

2 October 2024 

Little Woman’s Ending 

Little Woman (2019) is a movie adaptation of the novel Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott. This movie follows the March family. A mother and father, and four daughters through their life in 1850-1877. This is a beautiful movie, directed by Greta Gerwig, who has also directed other movies like Barbie and Lady Bird. This movie has many A-List actors, such as Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, and more. However, the widely known actors are not the only thing that makes this movie great. This film has gorgeous cinematography, powerful scenes, and an overall strong plot line that is sure to capture anyone who watches it. The only complaint that most of the audience has is the ending. Many people argue that if something does not have a good ending, then the project as a whole is bad. However, this does not stand true for Little Woman. The movie is so good in every aspect, that the bad ending does not tear down its ratings and likability.  

One thing that helps the movie stay strong despite the ending is the shots they choose to keep in the movie. Many scenes are gorgeous and give you a sense of joy. When the four sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth are eating together on Christmas Eve, it easily gives you a sense of warmth and family. You can see the vibrant colors of the Christmas decorations, and the snow falling outside the window. Along with that, you also have a scene where the sisters are at the beach with a few of their other friends. This scene is beautiful in its own way. It gives off a sense of playfulness, and you can feel the fun they are all having on the beach. We can see the waves, and the bright blue sky on a sunny day. Despite these two, the strongest scene that shows the best cinematography is when Beth is playing the piano alone, and somebody is listening in. This scene is shot right outside the room, where we have a direct line of sight to Beth playing, and to the side we can see the listener, right outside the room hearing Beth play music. There are many more pretty scenes in this movie, but these are one of the strongest ones.  

In my opinion, the main reason this movie is such a strong film is because of the plot. While we follow the March family as a whole, our main protagonist is Jo March. However, all of the sisters have a main plot line that we can follow as well. While Beth and Meg are more in the background, we learn a lot about Amy’s story, along with a man named Laurie. The way that Little Woman is formatted is that it goes back and forth from the present, and flashbacks in the movie. This makes the movie so much more interesting. The first time we are flashbacked, it tells us. But after that, it just flips back and forth. The easiest way to tell if the movie is in the present or past, is the colors. When we are in the past, the colors are warm and inviting, everyone is together and happy. When we are in the present, it has more of a cool tone, and there are more problems in the story.  

Now to the ending. Many people dislike the ending because Jo ends up marrying a man. This is so incredibly important to the story because, throughout the movie, Jo makes it clear to her family and audience that she does not want to marry. One of the most iconic scenes of the movie is when Laurie professes his love for Jo. He makes a romantic speech, and Jo turns him down. She strongly believes that she will never marry, and instead will become a famous writer all on her own. One of the most memorable lines Jo has is when she says “Woman, they have minds and they have souls, as well as just heart. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty.  And I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it” (Gerwig 1:42:28). Her delivery throughout this small speech is so powerful. She shows her passion, and in the period when this movie is taking place, this makes the speech even more important.  

Despite drilling into the audience’s mind that she will and does not want to marry, by the end of the movie, she ends up marrying a man we barely know. Another review online says “Jo should not have married (Iinkonscreen). This is the opinion of almost everyone who has watched the film as well. It feels like it defeats the whole purpose of the move, and the whole purpose of Jo’s arc. If they really wanted Jo to end up being married, they had many options to go about expressing that to the audience. They could have made it clear about halfway through the movie that she did now want to marry. They also could have made her marry Laurie, who is one of the fan favorites. Instead, they chose a weak approach, picking a man we barely knew and marrying him off to the protagonist of the movie.  

 

 

 

 

Work Cited Entry: 

Gerwig, Greta. Little Woman. Performances by Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlen, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Louis Garrel, James Norton. Sony Pictures, 2019, film. 

“Little Women book review – Why Jo should not have married.” IInkonscreen, https://iinkonscreen.com/little-women-book-review-why-jo-should-not-have-married/. Accessed 2 October 2024.