REVIEW: Little Women (2017) Episode 3

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Little Women (2017) BBC One
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6853528/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Episode 3 (28th of December 2017)

A bit more disconnected, somewhat inevitably, as it covered more time, starting with Meg leaving to build her own home, to have twins and do very little else plotwise. After Jo sabotaged her chance, Amy went abroad and Jo left for New York for a time, with Beth eventually crossing a river beyond all of them.

I did get tears in my eyes at Beth’s demise, mainly because of Emily Watson’s tour de force acting. The focus on a mother facing losing her child was powerful, even if it could be argued that this was at the detriment of the characters’ belief in the heavenly Father mentioned before. But Marmee’s goodbye speech to Beth was lovely, and the scene where Jo comforted her also showed that Jo had it in her to be a mother, even if she didn’t quite know it.

I loved Jo’s messy hair throughout, although I doubt the actress is beyond the 17 to 20 range, so the grey hair in the last scene amused me. I was also amused that the Professor wooed her with philosophy. It’s sweet that it was appealing to her brain, as well as being able to play and so forth that made her fall in love. Their romance didn’t have the airtime Amy and Laurie’s did, but then the latter had to combat his infatuation with Jo. I liked the echoes of Amy’s time at Aunt March’s and the contrast in the dance with Jo at Meg’s wedding.

By the time we saw Amy at Plumfields (with little Bess!), her hair had reached all the elegance Amy could desire. Er, I’d argue that this obsession with hair is entirely textual. Having the same actress play Amy as a child meant that her maturation didn’t quite have the same impact – I’d argue for going the ‘Boyhood’ route and filming in two stretches. I felt that the actress playing Jo, too, was pushing beyond her ability because of her age in her line to Laurie about having been children then, even though it was entirely right for the character, post losing Beth and Laurie the lover. But, let’s not complain, this adaptation differentiated between the seasons beautifully.

Again, in the main, the additions worked well – Meg and Marmee’s conversation at the birth added to the idea of motherhood. We didn’t get nearly enough of Aunt March, but the scene where Jo shared her frustration at her narrowing life with her led nicely to the gift of Plumfield and the epilogue.

I wish, after the generosity of the offer, we’d seen Mr Laurence abroad with Laurie, but there we go. Where did they film the foreign bits? A closer squint at the credits suggests this was filmed in Ireand.

I don’t feel that I’ve written nearly enough about Jo the writer, but it’s a vital strand to understanding her as a character – and Beth was musical and Amy artistic, but Jo was the one who grew into the writer who touched her readers. So the scene where her father advised her to write was key and everyone’s response to ‘My Beth’ contrasted with writing for money. I like fantasy, but I’ve had a taste of Alcott’s sensationalist writing, and it wasn’t good. The idea of her having set her stories in the places Amy was visiting, populating them with supernatural figures – well, I can see the Professor over-reacted, but you’re glad that the heroine found the same synthesis as her creator did. By the way, it threw me that the sign at the school used the spelling ‘Bauer’, when it’s ‘Bhaer’ in all the versions of the book I’ve seen.