The film opens with Jane Eyre running through the grayish,frightening and windy moors. From afar, one can hear a voice shouting her name, which makes her run faster until the wind and rain leads her to collapse and lose consciousness on a hostile rock.She is saved by a young clergyman St John Rivers and nursed back to health by his two kind sisters
For those who have read Jane Eyre, this is not the way the story of the little girl with a childhood “à la Charles Dickens” unloved by her wicked aunt and ill treated in a boarding school filled with sadists begins.
The film however covers Jane’s younger years thanks to energetic and well edited flashbacks which eventually lead to her dramatic escape from the eerie Thornfield manor.
Hated by her rich widowed aunt and harassed by her nasty cousins, Jane is sent to pursue her education in a boarding school where despite the hardships and loneliness, she manages to become a well educated and self reliant human being.
She may by “small, plain and poor”, but compared to the unhappy, rich and disturbed human beings which fill Charlotte Bronte’s wonderful 1847 novel, Jane’s proud and intelligent character makes the readers, viewers and of course two of the male protagonists fall deeply in love with her.
Like most women Jane is attracted to what is wrong and exciting, therefore to the cynical and dashing owner of Thornfield, Edward Fairfax Rochester who has employed her as a governess to his “ward” Adele. In the 1944 version of Jane Eyre, Orson Wells played Rochester and literally dominated the whole film. In this latest version Michael Fassbender is the impossible and unpredictable man. Fassbender is charismatic and charming and by staying a little bit in the background without imposing himself in every scene, he completely wins the entire public over with his effortless magnetism. He is a man who has “lived” and when Jane comes into his life, he sees a chance for redemption and happiness.Mia Wasikowska is probably one of the best Jane Eyre’s upto date. Her breakthrough role was in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and she was the sensitive and balanced daughter in The Kids Are Alright. Wasikowska is far from plain, but her severe attire and hair scrapped into a bundle make her a very credible governess. Even when she discovers Rochester’s deep secret, there are no hysterics. She locks herself in her room and calmly walks out only to find Rochester collapsed outside her door waiting for her and her absolution.
In today’s day and age, the man would have probably kicked the door opened without patiently waiting with some burning candles for the woman he loves to come out of the room.
But then again Jane Eyre is all about unsaid attraction both physical and intellectual which seem doomed and forbidden by so many factors from age to social status and hidden secrets.
The fact that the love is so repressed and impossible makes it all more sensual .The book which was initially published in England in 1847 was titled Jane Eyre. An Autobiography and Bronte used the male pen name of Currer Bell. One year later when the book was published in the US, the story was described as an “influential feminist text” in the Penguin edition because of its detailed and exhaustive description of a female character but also due to the fact that Jane survives everything and comes out triumphant in every situation without ever generating a sense of pity. A heroine who came to life in 1847 but who has the same desires for personal success and love as any 20 year old would want today, this film depicts beautifully the evolution of a human being from a young and inexperienced girl to a confident woman.
The dark and gothic like visual sense in Jane Eyre is the work of director Cary Fukunaga whose 2009 film Sin Nombre about Mexican gangs is frequently shown on cable TV in Sri Lanka and should not be missed.
Every ingredient is present to make Jane Eyre one of the best romances of the year, costumes, castles, a touch of insanity, brooding heroes and virtuous heroines; this is an absolutely beautiful film which should be watched by all.
Courtesy - The Sunday Leader - By Sumaya Samarasinghe
