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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Jane Eyre (Film)

by Jenni Dawes | August 08, 2011 14:59 | Edited August 08, 2011 15:00

It’s a compelling slow-burner, but one that avoids the soul-wrenching emotion that could have transformed this into a modern classic.

Charlotte Bronte's classic tale of a 19th century love affair hindered by the weight of actions past receives a shake-up, in a tense, quietly beautiful adaptation that should please long-time devotees and first-timers alike. Orphaned Jane (Wasikowska) survives a loveless childhood and a brutal schooling to gain employment as a governess at Thornfield, the isolated estate of the brooding, possibly dangerous, yet ultimately compelling Rochester (Fassbender). Their battle of intellects soon turns to tender longing, with their affections played out against an old, dark manor that hides an even darker secret.

 

This is one of Australian actress Mia Wasikowska's first leading roles, and she aptly shoulders the responsibility. Plain Jane, with her virtuous moral compass and restrained emotions, easily teeters on the verge of dreary. Under the intense gaze and flourishing attention of Rochester, her inner vitality begins to bloom, but, as with a delicate bud slowly unfurling to the sun, it is an achingly measured process. What saves her, and the film, is an earnestness and inner strength befitting the plucky type of heroines for which audiences can't help but rally.

 

Director Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) has deliberately avoided the extremes of gothic horror and passionate romance in the story, instead placing it in a midland as bereft of verve as Thornfield's surrounding moors. The result is a poignantly shy, as opposed to smouldering, connection between Wasikowska and Fassbender, which serves to be both frustrating and phenomenal.

 

Though sated with moments of intensely haunting beauty, the film only scratches the surface of Jane's loneliness, of her and Rochester's need for each other, and of Thornfield's great and terrible secret. What might have been a soul-wrenching, unforgettable film worthy of placement among the great "weepies" is instead a solid slow-burner, that is never-the-less worthy of attention.