Hot take on Laurie and Amy 2019's praised scene:
The part of the film that corresponds to the chapter "Lazy Laurence" is represented in a way that maybe feels right and meaningful if you feel identified with Amy there, in case a man treated you like that, or if you don't remember well the book, which is understandable, but it's actually not how it should have been told and it would fit better if it was told for a new story. Gerwig didn't seem to understand the Little Women characters enough (this post is just one example), so this scene just feels like unnecesary rudeness.
Laurie gets drunk (even though in the book he promised to Meg not to drink alcohol anymore. AND LAURIE IS VERY LOYAL!!!)
"Has Jo smashed all the bottles by accident?" he whispered, "or am I merely laboring under a delusion that I saw some lying about loose this morning?"
"No, your grandfather kindly offered us his best, and Aunt March actually sent some, but Father put away a little for Beth, and dispatched the rest to the Soldier's Home. You know he thinks that wine should be used only in illness, and Mother says that neither she nor her daughters will ever offer it to any young man under her roof."
Meg spoke seriously and expected to see Laurie frown or laugh, but he did neither, for after a quick look at her, he said, in his impetuous way, "I like that! For I've seen enough harm done to wish other women would think as you do."
"You are not made wise by experience, I hope?" and there was an anxious accent in Meg's voice.
"No. I give you my word for it. Don't think too well of me, either, this is not one of my temptations. Being brought up where wine is as common as water and almost as harmless, I don't care for it, but when a pretty girl offers it, one doesn't like to refuse, you see."
"But you will, for the sake of others, if not for your own. Come, Laurie, promise, and give me one more reason to call this the happiest day of my life."
A demand so sudden and so serious made the young man hesitate a moment, for ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial. Meg knew that if he gave the promise he would keep it at all costs, and feeling her power, used it as a woman may for her friend's good. She did not speak, but she looked up at him with a face made very eloquent by happiness, and a smile which said, "No one can refuse me anything today."
Laurie certainly could not, and with an answering smile, he gave her his hand, saying heartily, "I promise, Mrs. Brooke!"
"I thank you, very, very much."
"And I drink 'long life to your resolution', Teddy," cried Jo, baptizing him with a splash of lemonade, as she waved her glass and beamed approvingly upon him.
Laurie leaves Amy waiting at a party to be surrounded by other girls (in the books he would never have treated her with such horrid behavior. He has always treated her like a gentleman, and there's a reason everyone thinks he's one, but there was also a certain endearing protective bond between them since she was little.)
Amy calls him ridiculous for still wearing the ring that Jo gave him (even though in the book she apologized for her lack of softness when finding out that Jo rejected him):
In a minute a hand came down over the page, so that she could not draw, and Laurie's voice said, with a droll imitation of a penitent child, "I will be good, oh, I will be good!"
But Amy did not laugh, for she was in earnest, and tapping on the outspread hand with her pencil, said soberly, "Aren't you ashamed of a hand like that? It's as soft and white as a woman's, and looks as if it never did anything but wear Jouvin's best gloves and pick flowers for ladies. You are not a dandy, thank Heaven, so I'm glad to see there are no diamonds or big seal rings on it, only the little old one Jo gave you so long ago. Dear soul, I wish she was here to help me!"
"So do I!"
The hand vanished as suddenly as it came, and there was energy enough in the echo of her wish to suit even Amy. She glanced down at him with a new thought in her mind, but he was lying with his hat half over his face, as if for shade, and his mustache hid his mouth. She only saw his chest rise and fall, with a long breath that might have been a sigh, and the hand that wore the ring nestled down into the grass, as if to hide something too precious or too tender to be spoken of. All in a minute various hints and trifles assumed shape and significance in Amy's mind, and told her what her sister never had confided to her. She remembered that Laurie never spoke voluntarily of Jo, she recalled the shadow on his face just now, the change in his character, and the wearing of the little old ring which was no ornament to a handsome hand. Girls are quick to read such signs and feel their eloquence. Amy had fancied that perhaps a love trouble was at the bottom of the alteration, and now she was sure of it. Her keen eyes filled, and when she spoke again, it was in a voice that could be beautifully soft and kind when she chose to make it so.
"I know I have no right to talk so to you, Laurie, and if you weren't the sweetest-tempered fellow in the world, you'd be very angry with me. But we are all so fond and proud of you, I couldn't bear to think they should be disappointed in you at home as I have been, though, perhaps they would understand the change better than I do."
"I think they would," came from under the hat, in a grim tone, quite as touching as a broken one.
"They ought to have told me, and not let me go blundering and scolding, when I should have been more kind and patient than ever. I never did like that Miss Randal and now I hate her!" said artful Amy, wishing to be sure of her facts this time.
(...)
The hard, bitter look came back again as he said that, and it troubled Amy, for she did not know what balm to apply.
"I was wrong, I didn't know. I'm very sorry I was so cross, but I can't help wishing you'd bear it better, Teddy, dear."
Amy says that it's not fair he suddenly wants to kiss her when she has spent all her life loving him and feeling behind Jo (in the book Amy and Laurie fall in love at the same time in Europe, she never loved him prior, she just liked him as a friend and when she was little she wanted a future suitor who were as handsome and chivalrious as Laurie, not Laurie per se yet).
Amy scolds him in a very rough way that feels as if she's done with him (I'm not gonna copy all the chapter but in the book scene, even though she says that she despises him and some other thingies, she's still so much more loving. It's as if her heart had a magical bottle for sensitive artists that contains a great mix of honesty and care...)
We don't exactly see Laurie becoming better, I mean either in his process or decision. It's like, she scolds him, they talk normally again another day, and that's all. They get along without a true emotional impact and proof of his improvement.
And their conflict in the movie feels like a fight, while in the books it's just two friends saying what they feel and think and trying their best, that even though they could have been uncomfortable at some point, it just wasn't like that disgusting and unnecesary movie argument.
My conclusion is that in the books they respect each other a lot, and it kinda hurts me to see them damaged into something that takes some of the most special parts of their characters away.
