Jane Eyre
East Village Sunshine Cinema, March 22, 2011
Movie #19 for 2011
Despite being exactly up my alley, I have never read Jane Eyre. I don’t know what to tell you, Charlotte Bronte, but I’m sorry, it’s true. I do know the story though (I’m pretty sure I wrote an essay on it in uni, despite not having read it), but then, who doesn’t?
I feel very strongly about adaptations - you may have noticed - but am alright with folks remaking the same material over and over if they are able to bring something to it. Like, for example, what CARY FUKUNAGA (Sin Nombre) brings to this version of Jane Eyre.
This Jane Eyre (the film) is suitably Gothic and moody. Jane Eyre (the character) is capable and frustrated, isolated but quietly ambitious. She is, as Bronte would have it, a whole person, despite her ‘tale of woe’.
At 10, Jane is sent away from her distant aunt and abusive cousins to a cruel boarding school. When she leaves again - 18 years old, plain, educated and candid - she is placed as a governess for Adele, the young French ward of Edward Rochester. Over the following year, Rochester and Jane get to know one another and fall in love. But Rochester has a really, really big secret locked in his attic.
The excellent screenplay by Moira Buffini (who recently butchered Tamara Drewe) chops up the narrative a bit, especially at the beginning, keeping the drama hopping along. Plenty is crammed into the plot, but Fukunaga balances it beautifully with character development and a nice, even - perhaps even thoughtful - pace.
But best of all are the performances. Fukunaga uses natural lighting and a handheld camera (but not noticeably, shakily, whip-panningly so) to allow for natural and subtle performances from MIA WASIKOWSA (who was so, so average in Alice in Wonderland) and the ever-awesome MICHAEL FASSBENDER (Inglorious Basterds, Hunger). JAMIE BELL and JUDI DENCH give excellent support.
I like this Jane Eyre so much that I’m headed straight to the library to borrow Bronte’s version to see how it stacks up.
