Little Women (2019)

If only men could like this in real life. Sure, not all of them are good but John Brook (James Norton, used too little) is a saint, an actual saint.
But this film is not about the men, it's all about the women and what wonderful, fully fleshed women they are, from the gentle Marmee (Laura Dern) to the nasty but brave Amy (Florence Pugh). Yes, Amy is still the worst, tossing Jo's (Saoirse Ronan) novel into the fire and this is before flashdrive back-up, but she comes into her own later on while painting in France, confronted by Laurie (Timothee Chalamet), telling him off, stating that of course she's going to marry for money and informing him of all the rights women don't have. That is the moment worth remembering in this film.
Sure, Jo is the main character and the heart of the film, as she loves her family dearly and also longs for her stories to be published without any edits or forced happy endings, but her happy ending isn't forced. I mean, it is. Her sisters, Meg (the great Emma Watson) and Amy insist that she follow Professor Friedrich Baer (Louis Garrel) as he wanders off to the train station, headed to California, no small journey. So she gets her romantic happy ending (must be nice), which also gives her novel the happy ending her editor, Dashwood (Tracy Letts) insists that it needed.
Now, this version of Little Women than all the ones that came before it, starting after the war and having constant flashbacks of the sisters during the Civil War, and the screenplay is just brilliant, all the kudos to Greta Gerwig. Personally, I'm glad that it focused more on them as young adults rather than teenagers so the characters are closer to the actual ages of the actors portraying them.
But the film hinges on the performances and they do not disappoint with chameleon-like performances from all so the film is absolutely worth watching. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Beth's (Eliza Scanlen's) death is still utterly heart-breaking.
-Meryl Streep is great as the rich but cool Aunt March while Chris Cooper shines as the elderly Mr. Lawrence.
-The production value of this film was incredibly high as you felt as though you were being transported to a different time.
-Scanlen does what she can to give the underwritten Beth a personality, including her feeding a doll some breakfast and talking to the horses before Meg takes a carriage ride.
-Silk for fifty dollars? That seems steep especially for that time.