Music, Style & Culture

Jane Eyre

Every shot is a work of art and Dario Marianelli's dramatic score compounds the fiery passion and dread.

Released in cinemas 9th September 2011.

Sin Nombre director Cary Fukunaga looks set to forge a career as diverse as Ang Lee's with this stunning adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel.

Jane Eyre is one of literature's richest characters, and Australian actress Mia Wasikowska is magnificent as the neglected but self-reliant orphan whose distressingly complicated life changes forever when she accepts a governess job at Thornfield Hall.

Moira Buffini's screenplay opens with the distraught, starving adult Jane collapsing outside the isolated country home of St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell) and his sisters Diana (Holliday Grainger) and Mary (Tamzin Merchant). We then begin Jane's story in flashback, from her childhood in the care of her heartless aunt Mrs Reed (Sally Hawkins) and the physical abuse from her teenage cousin John (Craig Roberts - Submarine reunion ahoy).

Child actress Amelia Clarkson may not resemble Wasikowska in the slightest, but, vitally, both imbue Jane Eyre with the tenacity that defines her character, and made her one of the earliest feminist icons. Fukunaga pulls no punches with Jane's misery, building up the psychological and very real terror that the little girl endures on a daily basis. Denounced as a wicked, heathen child, Jane is sent to a charity institution, with Clarkson extraordinary during her biting and truthful assassination of Mrs Reed's character on departure.

Jane's determined, empathetic spirit lands her in trouble from day one, but she endures eight years of mistreatment to leave for a new appointment as governess to a young French girl, Adele (Romy Settbon Moore). Her employment comes from Judi Dench's Alice Fairfax, the kindly but blunt keeper of Thornfield Hall, and for the first time in her life, Jane is safe and content.

Enter one Mr Rochester, the owner of Thornfield Hall and guardian of Adele. Rochester isn't meant to be a looker, and the doughy Orson Welles played him brilliantly and abruptly in the 1943 version (until now, the best adaptation). However, the swoonworthy Michael Fassbender is wonderful casting: intense, riveting, and slightly dangerous, with a warped handsomeness that flashes between surly and haunted. Rochester is immediately fascinated by Jane, and sparks fly between the first of their many fireside chats. It's a battle of wits between two very different but equally wounded people - the defensive Jane who expects little respect, and her angry, isolated master. Both actors are superb, aided by Adriano Goldman's atmospheric yet naturalistic photography and the suitably lived-in and aged production design.

A sequence of both humiliating character tests and terrifying occurences bring Jane and Rochester closer, before a revelation shatters Jane's world and leads her to that opening sequence. Fukunaga crafts a stunningly shot drama that balances the period drama and gothic romance. Any moment involving Jane and Rochester in the same frame is electric thanks to Fassbender and Wasikowska's smouldering chemistry, but Buffini's script thankfully touches on Rochester's dangerously patronising behaviour. Fukunaga doesn't necessarily capture the repression of the novel, instead showing the blossoming relationship in a dreamy, carefree montage.

In just two hours, 2011's Jane Eyre is remarkably concise and faithful to Brontë's sprawling story. Her time spent in the company of the pious St. John is given adequate, if altered, weight, with Jane touchingly humble as she starts a new chapter in her life. Book lovers should not feel cheated, as although the story rattles along at a healthy pace, attention to detail remains.

Newcomers to Jane Eyre must not be put off by the soppy, lovelorn trailers, for this is a grim story of survival and resilience, with a twist worthy of the darkest thriller. Inspiring and and heart-stoppingly passionate, Fukunaga's Eyre is utterly compelling - every shot is a work of art and Dario Marianelli's dramatic score compounds both the fiery passion and the dread. Fassbender solidifies his status as an electrifying leading man, but it's Wasikowska who is worthy of an Oscar nomination for her sensitive and finely tuned understanding of Jane - when her severeness falters, it's heartbreaking.

This is no stuffy corset drama, but a gripping nightmare over an astute study of 19th Century society. A better adaptation could not be imagined.

Rating: 9/10