Likewise, despite those great darker storytelling strides, the presentation could have been a lot spookier. However, we shouldn’t pause for pretty reflection and romantic montages when there is so much more from the book to tell. This Jane Eyre is not slow paced by any means- the suspense telling is quite the contrast from other period films in fact. The superb natural camerawork, light and shadow plan, and period photography all do wonders- but I do wish there were more of the missing cuts and deleted scenes instead of a few slower transitions. Though everyone is held in check by the Victorian customs, there is plenty of heat and tension amid the firelight or nighttime blue conversations. Fortunately, the literary dialogue shines in lovely fireside scenes. Those unfamiliar with the novel might not quite understand her relationship to Rochester here. I do, however, wish there was more of Freya Parks (Creation) as sickly little Helen and newcomer Romy Settbon Moore as Adele. The Lowood scenes are also dynamic, with just enough twistedness. This flashback storytelling creates more suspense and mystery- especially if one didn’t know the Jane Eyre story.
Thankfully, director Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) and screenwriter Moira Buffini (Tamara Drewe) play with an untraditional timeline- and the changes are great. Will Jane be able to escape society’s confines and Thornfield’s secrets and be true to herself?Ĭharlotte Bronte’s 1847 tale is a familiar one indeed. Fairfax (Judi Dench) and her charge at Thornfield, Adele (Romy Settbon Moore). John Rivers (Jamie Bell), Jane remembers her unscrupulous Aunt Reed (Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky) and the ruthless Lowood School before coming to meet housekeeper Mrs. While recuperating at the home of minister St. Governess Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska) abandons Thornfield Hall and the manor’s mysterious master Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender) – with whom she has fallen in love. After all, it is the Fassbender Festivus, don’t forget.
She became pregnant shortly after her marriage in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855 of tuberculosis or possibly typhus.Instead of a Dickensian Christmas- that Victorian treat is being saved for Dickens’ bicentennial in a few months- I’m taking time out to revisit the new 2011 Jane Eyre on blu-ray. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles.īrontë experienced the early deaths of all her siblings. Her first novel The Professor was rejected by publishers, her second novel Jane Eyre was published in 1847, although it was not initially well received one critic described it as a "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition". Instead they turned to writing and they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. In 1839 she undertook the role as governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months to return to Haworth where the sisters opened a school, but failed to attract any students. She left the year after to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home, returning in 1835 as a governess. She enlisted in school at Roe Head in January 1831, aged 14 years. And I'll never call you aunt Rate this script: (3.50 / 2 votes)Ĭharlotte Brontë (, commonly 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature.