Film Review: Jane Eyre (2011)
Fans will agree that Jane Eyre is one of the most evocative, beautifully written novels of all time…not to mention groundbreaking in its dealings with religion and feminist views at the time it was written.
The 2011 film adaptation of this novel sadly does not come close to doing it justice. No harp on the acting — especially Mia Wasikowska’s performance — which was a strength in the film. But the watered down dialogue, brutal editing, and prim portrayal of the story are all pretty painful for the faithful book lover to behold. It came nothing close to capturing the wild, haunting, gothic imagery evoked by Bronte. They “prettified” the story… The handsome and gentlemanly Michael Fassbender was poorly cast as dark, heavy-featured and unrefined Rochester, who, by the way, was not sitting picturesquely in a garden at the end of the story — he was horribly deformed by his injuries and living in a shack in the middle of the forest… lol Sure, this film was well “adapted” to please a mainstream movie-goer, unfamiliar with the book, but it is not “Jane Eyre”.
The reason so many film adaptations (including this one) have failed is understandable — it must be impossibly difficult to take such an expansive, dark and richly detailed book and compress it into commercial film format. So much time passes in the book…so much is said…one of the things that makes Jane Eyre such an incredible book is Bronte’s vivid descriptions of the scenery and the voice of Jane as narrator, which not only walks us through the story from her intensely close perspective but gives us such an intimate understanding of her thoughts and personality. This movie removes that sense of closeness and crops out some of the most powerful moments and relationships in the book…
Show me the person who can capture the dark, esoteric imagery of this novel, its breathtaking prose AND edit to movie length while preserving the true essence of the story, and I will bow low and shut my mouth. Until then…I will remain the all enduring critic and keep to my copy of Jane Eyre, the novel.
