Little Women (2019) tried very hard to downplay Jo/Friedrich but the scenes we did get were still so good!!
I love the way the movie showed Jo and Friedrich watching each other longingly when the other isn’t looking. Friedrich looking at Jo in the opera and smiling to himself when he notices her enthusiasm. He later gifts her with a book, showing that he does pay attention and cares about her interests (and what bigger proof of love is there?). And later, Friedrich watching as Jo rushes off to teach Mrs. Kirke’s children with complete adoration in his eyes.
Jo watching Friedrich almost reverently when he exists the opera. Her smile when she again observes him at the bar, where he is framed in the center of the room, surrounded by other men. In that moment alone, he is everything to her, beautiful and radiant.
Their first meeting plays out like a classic love-at-first-sight scene. The way they smile at each other, Jo’s flustered introduction, the way they hover at the doorway and can’t seem to tear their gaze from one another even after they’ve been interrupted by Mrs. Kirke and Jo is led away.
The huge smile on Jo’s face when she sees Friedrich at her home. “It’s you.” She says it like a revelation, like she’s just discovered something that perhaps, deep down, she’d always known all along.
Friedrich plays Beth’s piano and Jo watches him, grief and love intertwined. He fits so seamlessly into her family, that it seems as if he was always meant to be there. And in that moment, she knows that Beth would’ve loved him, too.
The way Jo stands back, widest smile on her face, as she watches her family say goodbye to Friedrich, like he’s already a part of them. She’s happy that they like him. The way she can’t hold back the smile on her face, even as she half-heartedly denies loving him.
All of that, my friends, is peak Period Romance right there, and no one can change my mind.
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