[Review] Jane Eyre (2011)

The Following is a Guest Review by Pop Bunker junior associate Stephanie Rose “Strawberry” Butler. For the record, she is awesome.

Jane Eyre – Focus Features 2011 release – In theaters March 11th (New York [at the AMC Theatres Loews Lincoln Square and Landmark Theatres' Sunshine Cinema] and Los Angeles [at Pacific Theatres’ ArcLight Cinemas and Landmark Theatres’ The Landmark) – Friday March 18th in Additional Cities – Friday March 25th in additional cities.

Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte and published in 1847, is the story of one woman’s courageousness, fire and damn-it-all self respect. It has spurned dozens of mini series and movie adaptations and has remained a staple in English literature classes for nearly 150 years.  No small task, Moira Buffini’s screenplay wonderfully modernized the story while still maintaining the spirit of the novel.

Producer Alison Owen, an Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner, offers,

“If you say to someone, ‘What’s the definitive film version of Jane Eyre?’ no one really has an answer. Having made a number of movies from or about women’s fiction, I wondered, ‘Why not?’”

The story suffers little from the translation from a full length novel to a two hour movie. By giving the story a non-linear pattern, she breaks up the traditional and thrusts Jane’s story into a method better employed for the screen. In the opening scene, the cinematic present is established to be after Jane has left Thornfield and joined the Rivers family, then her story, from the time she is a young girl in her evil aunt’s lavish mansion, to her time at boarding school, all the way until she becomes of governess of young Adele, unfolds in the form of flashbacks.

Actress Amelia Clarkson gave an absolutely stunning and fiery performance as young Jane. She was so great at delivering strength that it made Mia Wasikowska’s interpretation seem flat and wooden.  Most of the time, the only was I knew how Jane was feeling was through the men describing it to her (and consequently me). However, there was absolutely amazing sexual tension and chemistry between Wasikowska and the outrageously sexy Michael Fassbender, who’s Rochester has just the right combination of brooding, bravado and sensitivity.

A hauntingly beautiful piece of film with breathtaking landscape shots of Derbyshire in England as well as a set in an incredible 11^th Century English manor, director Cary Joji Fukunaga blends the genres of horror, romance and gothic to create a visually stunning stage that feels fresh, breathing new life into this time honored standard.

PG-13 (for some thematic elements including a nude image and brief violent content) 121 minutes