Movies Reviews

Jane Eyre – Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Mar 11, 2011, 15:30 GMT

Mia Wasikowska (“Alice in Wonderland”) and Michael Fassbender (“Inglourious Basterds”) star in the romantic drama based on Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, from acclaimed director Cary Fukunaga (“Sin Nombre”). In the story, Jane Eyre flees Thornfield House, where she works as a governess for wealthy Edward Rochester. As she reflects upon the people and emotions that have defined her, it is clear that the isolated and imposing residence and Mr. Rochester’s coldness  have ...more

Mia Wasikowska is a gifted actress as she demonstrates in The Kids are Alright and Alice and Wonderland, but she’s out of her league as Charlotte Bronte’s windswept heroine in this latest version of Jane Eyre. 

Eyre was the survivor of many awful environments, the manor where she grew up as the burdensome distant relative, a horrific orphanage where she was humiliated and abused, and the palatial home of her beloved Rochester that held so many secrets. 

Jane suffered and endured and became a powerful, independent thinker because of it and she became a potent literary heroine.

Wasikowska seems miscast not because she lacks talent; she simply hasn’t had enough experience to undertake this amazing woman.   She seems tentative and too vulnerable.
Her life begins in a massive stately some, ruled by the iron fist of her aunt played by Sally Hawkins. 

Hawkins goes against type as this despicable, implacable woman who allows her sons to beat Jane and says the cruelest things to her.  We discover later that she withheld crucial information that would have changed Jane’s life, but by then it is too late (no spoilers intended – its Jane Eyre!).

Then it’s on to an orphanage where the girls are beaten and maltreated; her best friend dies in her arms of consumption happy she is going to her maker.  The casual systemic cruelty of the orphanage staff is beyond belief and yet again Jane survives.  Jane escapes and finds shelter with a kind family.  

She’s given a job as a governess at a nearby stately pile and discovers a world of mystery mostly concerning absentee owner Rochester. 

Michael Fassbender is the dark and brooding boss, the peg ‘o her heart, a man bigger than life, with an apparently colorful but secret past, and always seemingly on the edge of exploding.  There’s something manly and something devilish about him.  And he is his own boss.

Rochester hasn’t much use for the mousey Jane at first but discovering she is a survivor he draws her out, taunting her into confessing her “tale of woe”.  She resists and wins his respect.  Eventually she believes she’s found a kindred spirit in him and they have invigorating conversations, maybe a hint of romance. 

But nothing is ever easy in the life of Jane Eyre; complications including madness, fire, jealousy and dashed hopes befall her.  He is not such a pushover.

The great fires and the Secret in the Attic are pretty startling because the world created here is quiet, slow and relentless.  These shocks that heat Victorian blood give modern audiences a good bit of a scare too. No matter how well we know the novel, these moments deliver.

There is not a lot that’s new here; it’s in the book and the many movies on the subject.  But what is new is the stripped down, barebones storytelling and the brutality of the natural and social worlds. 

A great cast rounds things out, including Judi Dench as the housekeeper with a heart of gold, Jamie Bell as the kind hearted St. John Rivers, and many terrific character actors including the delightfully named Eglantine Rembauville-Nicolle.

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35mm drama
Directed by Cary Fukunaga
Written by Moira Buffini based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte
Opens Mar 11
Runtime:  115 minutes
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements including a nude image and brief violent content
Country: US
Language: English