Review of film: "JANE EYRE"

2011, 03-22:

Review of film:  “JANE EYRE”   

     

 

This is the latest version of Charlotte Bronte’s famous story from 1847, directed by “SIN NOMBRE’s” director CARY JOJI FUKUNAGA...

...  As the movie starts out, Jane Eyre (MIA WASIKOWSKA) has run away from a castle-like mansion in England, & is exhausted running in the rain thru a bunch of rocky and muddy fields...

...  She finally sees a lit house in the distance, and wearily goes up to it & sort of faints at the doorway.  She’s taken in by the owner, St. John Rivers (JAMIE BELL) and his two sisters, Diana (HOLLIDAY GRAINGER) and Mary (TAMZIN MERCHANT)...

...  Jamie is a REVEREND, with plans to become a missionary.  Mia has “changed” her last name to Elliott in speaking to him, and he & the women make her feel very welcome as they nurse her back to health...  They find her to be an unusually “straight-speaking” person who isn’t afraid to be “politically incorrect” (which was rare for women in those times)...

...  The story keeps using FLASHBACKS to tell us her “background”...  We learn that, some years before, when she was 10 years old, she (at this point played by AMELIA CLARKSON) was the niece of an extremely rich woman, Mrs. Reed (SALLY HAWKINS)...

...  Sally took her in to her home (called “Gateshead”) because Sally’s brother (“Jane’s” father) and other of her relatives had supposedly died (leaving “Jane” / Mia an “orphan”)...

...  Sally & her teenaged son John (CRAIG ROBERTS) acted very bitter & hurtful to her, & Mia refused to silently “accept” such treatment...  Because she “spoke back” & expressed herself honestly and wouldn’t “kow-tow” to the woman, she was forced to leave the estate & go into a girl’s “charity” (orphanage-like) school named Lowood...

...  The people there were even worse in their treatment to Mia than the previous home--  constantly putting her down, threatening her (& other girls) physically, & (since they didn’t like her independent streak), the other girls were ordered by those in charge of the place to AVOID her... 

...  The other girls all did that--  except for Helen Burns (FREYA PARKS), who, unfortunately, dies soon after they meet... But, meeting poor Freya in-effect makes Mia an even “STRONGER” person with even more determination to stand-up for herself and her innate rights...

...  Mia eventually in-effect “graduates” from the school (with a good education, even if no real friends), & the “flashes” return us seeing her at Jamie’s place called “Moor House”...  Jamie appreciates her book-learning, &, tho he doubts she’d be interested, mentions there’s a job available as a TEACHER of girls...

...  He’s surprised when she eagerly ACCEPTS the position, despite the fact that it doesn’t pay much.  As she openly tells him, she’s very pleased with the position, because it lets her do something she really ENJOYS, & even provides a house of her own to live in...

...  At one point, Mia (now a teenager) is told that a rich person wants her as a governess...  She likes that idea, and soon goes to the very large mansion called “Thornfield”.  There, she meets the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax (JUDI DENCH), who she initially thinks owns the estate.  Judi explains, no, no, the place is owned by Mr. Rochester, who’s seldom around...

...  Mia sets to teaching ENGLISH to a pre-teen French girl Adele Verens (ROMY SETTBON MOORE), who had been left in the care of Edward Rochester.  Mia finds herself quite content there overall, as she’s treated with kindness and respect by Judi and others, and the place is comfortable (tho a little “spooky” due to some strange “sounds” at times)...

...  Eventually, mansion-owner Mr. Rochester (MICHAEL FASSBENDER) RETURNS to Thornfield.  He’s handsome, smart, and “imposing”-- but clearly “troubled” by some things, as shown by the way his tone is often “dark” & “unhappy”...

...  Michael likes to sort of “challenge”  Mia intellectually, & seems pleased that she speaks “BACK” to him-- all the while doing that in a “courteous” way...  He seems to take a “liking”” to her.  But, highly-moral Mia sees herself as very “plain” & of not much “interest” to the opposite sex, so she’s “OBLIVIOUS” to his tentative “flirtations”...

...  In time, life becomes more and more “difficult” for Mia, as things become “STRANGE” at the Thornhill house:   there’s a sudden unexplained FIRE in the room of sleeping Michael, and Mia discovers it and saves him...

...  Also “weird” is the way Michael has a surprise visit from a young man named Richard Mason (played by HARRY LLOYD --  who’s the great-great-great-grandson of writer Charles Dickens) from Spanish Town, Jamaica, who he greets with a warm hug, but doesn’t fully “introduce” to Mia as to “WHO” he is in Michael’s life... 

...  Later, that young man Harry is somehow badly injured, bleeding from his neck area (while in a bedroom near the “off-limits” ATTIC area of the house)...  Michael insists that he say nothing to Mia as she’s “tending” to his wounds, & she’s to say absolutely nothing to HIM... 

...  Shortly after that, Harry is taken away by carriage...  And, it’s not until considerably later that we learn his important “relationship” to Michael...

...  In time, Michael finally makes his “interest” in Mia clear to her...

...  At first, she’s THRILLED when he asks her to marry him--  until the mysterious previously-injured Harry RETURNS to the area & a huge SECRET is revealed to Mia about Michael & the house...

...  We then learn it’s that “skeleton in the attic” that causes Mia to RUN AWAY from the Thornhill house & go to Jamie’s home...  There, even MORE secrets are learned (about Mia’s relatives, etc.)...

...  Will Jamie want to get “with” Mia, &, if so, will she be “INTERESTED”?...  Who does she really love, & what (if anything) will be “done” about it?...  Are there any more “secrets” or “TWISTS” to the life of “plain Jane” (Mia)?...

...  This is a finely-acted film (even tho some people might find all the talking to be somewhat “sleep-inducing”, as happened during my screening)... 

...  I know someone who complained that MIA supposedly doesn’t “fit” the “classic” image of Jane being someone “frail” physically.  I really don’t care about that element--  all I’m really concerned with is her performance, which I found to be EXCELLENT (effectively showing the “grit” & “resilience” of her character)...

...  Since the acting & the “mood” of the film are so well done, I’m rating the movie at 8.25 out of 10 stars...

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