12 Movies Literally ONE Step From Perfection

Frances Ha star Great Gerwig’s largely likeable recent adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s seminal coming of age novel may be an agreeable, if unspectacular, effort for much of its runtime.

But the film falls apart in its ambiguous ending, where we learn via a smug self-aware scene that Jo’s love interest Fredrich Baer may be an invention of hers, added to satisfy a dunderheaded publisher.

So, was Jo happy to be single and inventing a love interest for her publisher, or happy to be married to a real man?

And it she’s so happy being single, why did the film waste time establishing an imaginary love interest for a story that apparently never really happened?

Is this fictional story inspired by Alcott’s own life suddenly attempting to depict Alcott’s own life of singledom, or is Jo implying her husband is imaginary for no real reason?

Mashing together a pair of potentially interesting endings, the film ends up failing at both.