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Jane Eyre (DVD)
Year: 2011
Rating: M
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Cast: Jamie Bell, Judi Dench, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mia Wasikowska
Release Date: December 08, 2011
Distributor: Universal
The Film: 3.0
The Disc: 3.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5"...drearily faithful."
There have supposedly been 18 film and TV adaptations of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 Gothic-romantic gloomfest, and this latest from director Cary Fukunaga is one of the most drearily faithful.
Opening with the 18 year old Jane (Mia Wasikowska) escaping across the moors and taking up with the family of St John Rivers (Jamie Bell as a character usually skipped onscreen), we then follow non-chronological flashbacks of what led her there: a cruel Aunt (Sally Hawkins) made her childhood hell; she spent her teens in a nasty religious boarding school; and when she went to work caring for the ward of the oh-so-brooding Rochester (Michael Fassbender in a role typically played even more sourly by hams like Orson Welles and William Hurt), she was at least friendly with housekeeper Mrs Fairfax (who else but Judi Dench?). Naturally Rochester went for the ‘plain' Jane in a big way, but as he couldn't bring himself to admit this for ominous reasons, he opted instead to treat her with bitchy contempt.
A psychodrama from before such a term was coined, this features a tremendous performance by Wasikowska in a part that can be infuriatingly mopey, but there are many problems otherwise, from the dour cinematography to the creaky semi-horror stuff to Rochester himself who, despite Fassbender's best efforts, is an arsehole. Special features include a director's commentary, deleted scenes and various featurettes.
