This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
As Jane Eyre tromps across the moors at the start of the latest movie to bear her name, a viewer may be forgiven for thinking this is going in a familiar direction.
After all, there have been more than 20 movie and TV adaptations of Charlote Brontë's 1847 novel (according to the Internet Movie Database), so what can possibly be new about this one?
But where director Cary Joji Fukunaga, screenwriter Moira Buffini and star Mia Wasikowska take this classic story — about the unloved orphan who becomes a governess and eventually a thwarted bride — still yields some surprises by putting a spotlight on Jane's intelligence and spirit.
The contours of the story haven't changed. As a child, Jane (Amelia Clarkson) is abandoned by her stern aunt (Sally Hawkins) and placed in a year-round boarding school where the rod is never spared. Attempts to break Jane's willful spirit are ultimately futile, and she graduates at age 18 (played by Wasikowska) with a position as governess at Thornfield Hall.
At Thornfield, she is befriended by the aged housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax (Judi Dench) and takes a shine to her French-speaking young charge, Adele (Romy Settbon Moore). She soon meets Thornfield's master, the temperamental and brooding Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender, whose star is on the rise between this and his upcoming role as Magneto in "X-Men: First Class").
Buffini (who adapted the Thomas Hardy-inspired "Tamara Drewe") frames this familiar story with the part of Brontë's narrative that usually gets short shrift: Jane's life after leaving Thornfield Hall, when she is taken in by the kindly clergyman St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell). This serves to contrast Jane's two lives — depressing servitude vs. contented teaching — and the emotions of her would-be suitors, the fiery and mercurial Rochester and the shy but cold Rivers.
Buffini's script also gives room for Jane to speak for herself, allowing Wasikowska (familiar from her roles in "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Kids Are All Right") room to show the character as more than a doormat for her relations or her suitors. This Jane is plain-spoken, but also smart, easily the intellectual match for any man.
Fukunaga — working in a world quite different from his first feature, the gritty 2009 immigration drama "Sin Nombre" — captures the subtle class divisions of Jane's life in quiet strokes, with dark shadows pierced by glints of candlelight. And Fukunaga smartly underplays the romance between Jane and Rochester, allowing the repressed sentiments to smolder where other versions got overheated and burned out too quickly.
It may be overstating things to call this a feminist interpretation of Brontë's story. It is, however, one of the few movie adaptations of Jane Eyre that truly feel as if it's Jane's story to tell.
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'Jane Eyre'
A thoughtful, quietly passionate rendition of the classic story of a governess and her mercurial employer.
Where • Broadway Centre Cinemas
When • Opens Friday, April 1
Rating • PG-13 for some thematic elements including a nude image and brief violent content
Running time • 115 minutes