Little Women, Big Debates

The snow falls, the slippers shuffle, and a classic story gets a new pulse. We pull up a seat with Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and sort through what changes elevate the March sisters and what choices muddy the emotional payoff. From the first nonlinear cut, the film signals a fresh read on Louisa May Alcott: memory versus reality, authorship versus audience, and how a woman’s life gets packaged for sale. That structure sets the stage for one towering takeaway—Florence Pugh’s Amy. Watching her span spoiled ambition to adult clarity in a single performance is worth the price of admission.

We compare how the color palette becomes a narrator, bathing imagined outcomes in warmth while letting truth arrive in steel-blue light. Beth’s arc hits hardest here, with a visual fake-out that lands like a quiet gasp. On the relationship front, we tease out Jo’s refusal of the expected Laurie ending and the film’s lean sketch of the Professor. Is that an honest rendering of independence or a trade that sacrifices romantic catharsis for meta-commentary about publishing and power? The debate gets lively, with one of us charmed by the agency and the other wishing for deeper emotional grounding.

And about that seasonal placement—does Little Women really belong in the Christmas canon? We weigh the cozy winter vibes against the reality that the story stands with or without the holidays. Along the way, we spotlight Emma Watson’s measured Meg, nod to Saoirse Ronan’s flinty resolve, and admit the script’s rapid-fire banter may either delight book lovers or exhaust casual viewers. By the end, we split on ratings but agree on this: Gerwig’s version keeps Little Women alive as a story to argue about, revisit, and rediscover.

If you enjoy thoughtful film talk with a dash of humor, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review. What’s your take: Christmas staple, winter comfort, or classic reimagined—where do you shelve Little Women?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Teaching-Life Banter
• 1:28 Introducing Little Women (2019)
• 3:20 Synopsis And Cast Reactions
• 5:12 Adaptation Choices And Timeline Jumps
• 8:45 Beth’s Fate And Visual Storytelling
• 12:20 Amy’s Portrayal And Florence Pugh’s Range
• 16:40 Jo, Laurie, And The Professor Debate

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

On the couch we laugh and cry and feeling it all Breaking down the big screen, the hits and the flaw. Have your seat, let's play, let's take the picture. Lights, camera, action, it's the couch critics.

SPEAKER_02: 0:30

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Couch Critics. I'm your host, Nathan, and on today's episode, I'm not by myself again. Woohoo! Because it's the Couch Critics. I'm joined with my good friend Lexi. Hey Lexi, how are you?

SPEAKER_04: 0:44

I'm great. How are you?

SPEAKER_02: 0:46

I'm great. We're both teachers and we are both tired because it's almost Thanksgiving break and our students are feeling it. We're feeling it. It's it's hard not to get into that lazy feeling when you're almost on a break because you're like, what's the point of starting something new? I'm not gonna see the next week. But Lexi, you were telling me that they're still expecting you to what teach or something?

SPEAKER_04: 1:11

Yes. Because that's each attested subject.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15

It's a it it's a great profession. It's not for the weak at heart, but but you know what is for the weak at heart? I don't know. I was trying to do a nice segue into what we're talking about today. I was about to be like little women. We're continuing on our adventure and Christmas movies, and this one popped up, Little Women, and it's the 2019 Greta Gerwig directed version. So that's gonna be interesting to talk about. Before we can talk about our likes and dislikes, I have to go over the synipsis.

SPEAKER_01: 1:46

In 19th century, Massachusetts, the March sisters, Meg, Joe, Beth, and Amy, on the threshold of womanhood go through many ups and downs in life and endeavor to make important decisions about their futures.

SPEAKER_02: 2:00

Little women's stars. I don't know how to say her name. Her last name's Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlon, and also as Laura Dern, Timothy Chalamet, and Random Bob Odenkirk as the father. I thought that was I did not see that one coming. So I I don't think I've ever seen this version before. If you don't know who Greta Gerwig is, she directed the Barbie movie and she's directing the adaptation of The Magician's Nephew, a part of the Chronicles of Narnia for Netflix. So just to give you a little background of who she is. Lexi, I'm gonna let you go ahead because you are the woman on this episode. So what are your thoughts of the Greta Gerwig Little Women?

SPEAKER_04: 2:57

So can I go ahead and just preface this this way? I was fortunate to do Little Women, the production to what it's been a year ago, two years ago now? I don't know, with um Sweet T Shakespeare, and I got to play on March, which was fun. So I actually read the book, watched both movies, and I actually do like I like this one. I do say I do think it took some different liberties than the other one did not, and some different stuff from the original source material that I don't set agree with, but for an overall experience, it wasn't bad.

SPEAKER_02: 3:36

I also well I also forgot to mention that Meryl Streep is in this movie, and you would think there Meryl Streep would be one of the top casts, but she's not on IMDB, and she actually plays Aunt March in this movie. So I noticed a lot of liberties that Greta Gerwig took with this, and knowing Greta Gerwig as a director and kind of the messaging she tries to put into her movies, i.e. the Barbie movie, and that's really I think the only Greta Gerwig movie I've ever seen before. Sorry. She's I I don't want to say she's like full-on feminist, but that's a lot of her messaging in it. Strong, independent female characters, which I have no issue with at all, but she does change some of the story in little women. And I'm just gonna say I felt that this movie was a little too long. Now, this is coming from someone who has never read the book, so I don't know the 100% source material. I didn't actually talk to my wife about the movie afterwards. Like, did this happen in the book? Did this happen in the book? So I'm going off of that. Okay. This movie is two hours and 15 minutes. It felt like a lot longer than that. And I think it was because of the decisions that Greta Gerwig decided to do, which was a lot of back and forth in time, like present day at the start of the movie. She goes, she wants to become a writer, and this male editor is telling her that women want to read certain things about women, like getting married and stuff like that. And the character of Joe is very independent and doesn't even want to think about getting married in this movie. She doesn't want to think about it. And so it goes a lot of back and forth of like when they were when their father was off at war and all this stuff. And then it starts changing some of the storyline. Like, like I said, I had to ask my wife about the character of Amy. Oh, I should say this before we continue.

SPEAKER_01: 5:51

Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_02: 5:59

You've you heard that little warning. So I'm just gonna go ahead. Like the whole Amy dying thing, which I will say I kind of like the way they did that. Amy or Beth? I'm sorry? Amy dying or no no no Amy, Beth, yes. Yeah, I thought Beth died. Hold up. Yeah, I see, and that was the thing too. Like, I was confused, like some of the times it confused me of who was playing who too. So and Florence Pugh played Amy, which I'll get to uh I'll get to Florence Pugh in a little bit too. But the the whole Beth dying scene, I kind of liked and it kind of made me realize what they were doing. So when it was the thing that was actually happening, it was very dark and gray, like grayish coloring, you know, kind of moody, emotional, sad. And then when it's things that Joe would hope to have happened, or what a reader, I put in quotation marks, you can't see it, but what a reader would want to read, it was a lot more colorful, a lot more hopeful. So before they reveal that Beth actually dies, they do an alternate version of what that Beth gets better from this fever that she had. Father comes home, they have this great Christmas, and then you realize that Joe was just dreaming about it. And I thought that that was probably one of the only moments where I was like, okay, that was a really cool creative choice that they made. I feel like I'm talking a lot. So, Lexi, what did you think about the changes that Greta Gerberg decided to make? And so the biggest notice.

SPEAKER_04: 7:36

The big so the one that how Amy was only played by one person versus two, which in most adaptions, she's played by two different people the younger version, younger Amy, and older Amy. That's one thing. I the whole rejecting the marriage at the end. No. What else? Those are the two big ones. Those are the two biggest ones. I think she did make Amy not so whiny, and I actually did appreciate that. Amy was more complex and not like dance on disguise or like disgrace, we don't know something about say like she's she's pretty she's pretty solid in this one. I just don't like all the different liberties. I like, and I know she does it because like you said, she you pointed out, she likes the strong woman character to get, but if Joe got married to Professor Bird, that does not make her live strong.

SPEAKER_02: 8:35

Yeah, because I feel like Lori's character to play by Timothy Chalamet is like the obvious choice that you would think that Joe would make because of how close they are, their friendship, they've been through thick and thin, they've been through so much together. I I liked that she doesn't choose him though, because it's sometimes it's not always that obvious. And you have to really search your heart and figure out is this a person for you? And if you really don't feel that way, then of course you wouldn't want to tie yourself to that person. And then the professor, who you really don't see that much of in this movie, and I don't know if that's how it is in the book, too.

SPEAKER_04: 9:13

And so you know he's like a mystery, he he's in the book, but he's in the book more than what he was in the movie. I'll say that.

SPEAKER_02: 9:20

Yeah, but and so he he kind of feels like a out of out of left field kind of choice in the movie context. And so, but that but again, like you said, that's kind of okay too, because it's not always again cut and dry. Here you go, I'm handing you this person. This is your person. But again, like we stated before, Greta Gerwig has a message that she's trying to implement, and she implements it into this movie by taking those liberties and the fact that Joe ends up not getting married. But again, I wanted to go back to Florence Pugh since we mentioned her, and you said that was a choice that they made. Again, I've never seen another adaptation of this movie. My wife is probably gonna be listening to this and shaking her head, and because she she really enjoys um like the classic version of this story. I really liked Florence Pugh. I I think Florence Pugh is probably my favorite actress nowadays. I think she just in everything that I've seen her in, she just brings a lot to her characters, even if it's a a Marvel movie. I think she brings a lot of emotion and depth to her characters. And it's it's funny you say that about how traditionally Amy is portrayed by two different characters, because I thought she played both the young version and the older version brilliantly.

SPEAKER_04: 10:43

Oh no, she did.

SPEAKER_02: 10:44

Oh yeah, absolutely did. Because you you obviously you know when she's playing the young version, because I know you said she's not she doesn't come off as whiny, but she's still very like young and mature, and the way she delivers her lines really shows that and helps that come across a lot. And then when she's finally matured and grown up, you can just see that in the way she carries herself, her facial expressions, her line delivery. So I think Florence Pugh to me is the standout actress in this entire film.

SPEAKER_04: 11:18

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 11:20

Yeah, I think she could have played, I think she could have played Joe. I think she could have played any of these characters except maybe Marmy and and Aunt March. But all the other characters are a fan of obviously.

SPEAKER_04: 11:32

I wouldn't put her as Biff. I wouldn't put her as Biff too, because Beth is, I feel like it would be a waste of her talent.

SPEAKER_02: 11:37

But but I'm saying like her her her acting prowess. She could put she could play Beth and she would make it a standout character. Um but I mean, uh yeah, I think she's a standout for me. I I just my biggest my biggest drag is how how long of a film this feels. I felt like it kept on going. And it's one of those films where you kind of get the point, you kind of get where it's going, and like it kind of reminded me of the Barbu movie, actually. Because I remember when I went to go see the Barbie movie, after the first five minutes of that movie, I already knew the messaging and the direction it was gonna go in. So I didn't need to see any of the rest. That's how this movie felt to me. I already knew what they were going to do with Joe. Again, I didn't know how different the storyline was gonna be because again, I never read the book, but I already knew that they're gonna make her a strong, independent character, which again I have no issue with. But just by the director alone, I knew that was the direction they were gonna go to. And they just kept going in that direction, and then they kind of beat me over the head with it the entire film. And but the highlight again was Florence Pugh. I think she's she's she's worth it.

SPEAKER_04: 12:50

I was I would also say I know the character, Meg's character is not as big as the other three, but I actually did enjoy Emma Watson as Meg. She's not like she wasn't. I know Emma Watson is one of those people, like she's just I hate to say it, just kind of dear as Meg. But I I I had no beef with her Meg. I thought she was a good one.

SPEAKER_02: 13:15

I thought, yeah, clean. I mean, honestly, I think everyone did a fine job in the movie. Like, I think the acting, the acting wasn't terrible, okay. So, but I'll but I'll say again that Florence Pugh's acting outshined everyone else's acting. Oh, yeah. Which again, their acting wasn't terrible. I also want to say, and again, this is this is me being a person who doesn't like to read books that much. It was very wordy. Like the script was just very quick and fast, and they said a lot of words, and sometimes it hurt my head.

SPEAKER_04: 13:52

It's a wordy book. Yeah. In the play, it's also wordy.

SPEAKER_02: 13:57

And we gotta talk about the Christmas factor before we rate this movie. This is another movie that obviously, like my when I talked to my wife about it, she she kind of agreed with where I'm gonna go with this. It it's a movie or a book that you might read during the winter time to make you feel all warm and cozy. But this again is a story that if you took out Christmas, it would still be the same story. Yep. And I feel like a lot of these movies on this quote unquote Christmas list have been exactly that. And so I'm starting to question who makes who makes this list. But yeah, you don't need Christmas. There's like what two Christmas scenes in this movie.

SPEAKER_04: 14:44

I'm like, I don't even oh wait, yeah, because the last Christmas before Biff die, oh yeah, bang. Yeah, there's two, and then the slippers that it get, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:55

So it's it's basically the equivalent of the movie About a Boy, if you've ever seen that, which we reviewed earlier on in this season. There's only two Christmas scenes, so that's the that's the the gist of Christmas in this movie. So with those thoughts and our last minute thoughts about Christmas, let's go ahead and rate the Greta Greerwig 2019 adaptation of Little Women. Lexi, what would you give it based on a Christmas movie?

SPEAKER_04: 15:24

As a Christmas movie, a zero. You know, I'm very it's not.

SPEAKER_02: 15:31

You're very picky when it comes to the Christmas rating.

SPEAKER_04: 15:34

I'm sorry, because it doesn't give me like I'd be home for Christmas vibes. It doesn't give me Christmas. I can like pick straws at it, but I don't feel like, yep, I want to sit next to my Christmas tree and drink hot cocoa. No.

SPEAKER_02: 15:50

Well, and I think kind of going hand in hand with my general rating too, I feel like all the hope that could have been in this movie, like that's in the book, gets taken away. Like, obviously, yes, Beth does die in the book, and she dies in the movie. But like, even with that, there's still some hope afterwards, you know, there's still character connections that happen, and everything just seems so depressing, even the happy moments. And so for that, I give this movie, I'm not gonna give it a zero because I still feel like there is some like the snow and the it makes me feel a Christmas. So I'm gonna give it a one, a one out of five, which is which is being nice. But let's talk about our general rating for this specific adaptation. What would you give the greater girl 2019 adaptation of Little Women general rating? A four. Wow, that's pretty high for me, right?

SPEAKER_04: 16:51

That's a four out of five. So I I don't feel I feel like yes is long, however, it was still it's still enjoyable for me to watch. I I like watching it. So I'll give it a four.

SPEAKER_02: 17:04

See, my thing is the fact that there's really only one person that I really care about watching in this movie. I don't care about any of the characters. Again, not saying that their acting was terrible, and the fact that I, as I just stated, that I felt like all the hope that could have been in this story was like taken away just by doing whatever Greta Gerwig wanted to do with the character of Joe. So, because of all that, it does, it was not entertaining to me. I felt like I had to watch it because it was on my list. So I'm gonna give the Greta Gerwick 2019 adaptation of Little Women a 2.5 out of five. I will not watch it again. I thought it was boring. If I want to watch Little Women, I might go and look at the the uh adaptation that maybe my wife may have enjoyed. And yeah, I know, I know it does seem pretty harsh. It's typically me who's the low one.

SPEAKER_04: 18:02

That's wild.

SPEAKER_02: 18:03

Oh, and Florence Pugh is the main one of the main reasons why I gave it a 2.5 because I really thought her performance alone was brilliant. Everyone else was kind of like you know, Watson and just there. Oh wow, those are my and Lexi's thoughts on Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation of Little Women. Next Thursday, I'm taking on another movie that kind of confuses me that it's on this list, but sure, why not? Edward Scissor Hands is on the again. It's another movie where I'm like, who made this list? And coming this cinema Sunday, take it on Wicked Part One to prepare myself for wicked for good. So can't wait for that. Follow us on all our social media platforms. We're on TikTok now, The Couch Critics, Instagram, the Couch Critics Podcast, and of course, Facebook, the Couch Critics Podcast. Thanks for listening to the Couch Critics Podcast, where every movie gets its close-up.

SPEAKER_00: 19:09

It's not just a movie, it's a way of life. We'll watch it together. And don't miss it, don't you?