Having recently seen Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 version of the Charlotte Bronte tale, it's hard not to compare the two. It's easy though to be impressed with what director Cary Fukunaga has accomplished with this new version of the much-adapted romance. He brings new tension and artistry.
The film begins with an extremely effective foreshadowing. We see the older Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska, ALICE IN WONDERLAND) fleeing from Thornfield Hall, across a rocky field. She is exhausted. Seeing a house distant she makes her way there and collapses on the doorstep where she is saved by preacher St John Rivers (Jamie Bell, BILLY ELLIOTT). He and his sisters nurse her back to health and find her employment at a charity school. She says she is content because for the first time in her life, she is not subordinate to anyone.
This genius move makes us wonder where has this woman come from. This is where we flashback to her Dickensian childhood. The orphan was sent by her hateful aunt Mrs. Reed (Sally Hawkings, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY) to stay at an oppressive religious school where she is beaten with a switch and made to stand on a chair all day without food for the most minor infractions. Eventually she grows up and goes to the estate of Rochester (Michael Fassbender, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) where she will serve as the governess to his French ward Adele (Romy Setthon Moore). Mrs. Fairfax (Judi Dench, MRS. BROWN) runs the house. She tries to put the best spin on the nature of her master, but once Jane meets him, the fact that he is a sarcastic jerk is clear.
Wasikowska and Fassbender are marvelous. Thanks to some great costuming, the pretty actress looks plain. She adds to the impression with a prim attitude. But her Jane Eyre is not fragile. Rochester might put down the other help, but he won't get away with it with her. When he asks her to tell him her story of woe (because all governesses have a tale of woe), she doesn't take the bait. She tells him that she lived in a house finer than his as a child and then went to a school that gave her a good education. Rochester is captivated from that moment. Fassbender never once tries to make us like his character. For the lack of a better description, he is an ass. Their battle of wits is like foreplay. We feel they are equals despite the fact that he is rich and she is poor.
Working with cinematographer Adriano Goldman, Fukunaga makes Thornfield Hall an ominous place. Dark halls lit only with weak candlelight makes us think of a gothic horror film instead of a gothic romance. We can believe that ghosts do roam the halls. What is the source of those voices in the walls? This adds gravity to the sexual tension between Jane and Rochester. Jane's attraction to Rochester is undeniable, but there isn't something right about the whole thing.
The story is told with intelligence and subtly. It rewards the viewer who pays attention. While it never makes it explicit, there is a current of religious commentary underneath. As a child, Jane isn't particularly religious, but she is scared of the supernatural and hell. Years of being beaten over the head with dogma has set the fear in greater. She brings this to Thornfield. This drives her decisions once secrets are revealed. St John's boring puritanical attitudes add yet another dimension and makes for a richer story of love and the pressures of society.
This beautiful rendition of the romance has the tension of a thriller and the visual eye of a painter. In the Zeffirelli version Jane tells Adele during a drawing lesson that the shadows are just as important as the light. Fukunaga, Goldman and writer Moira Buffini (TAMARA DREWE) seem to have taken that lesson to heart. Through evocative imagery, great performances and smart writing, this version makes the story feel new and fresh, because it makes us feel the whole nuanced story instead of simply hearing and seeing the obvious. It is what good filmmaking is supposed to do.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
