Review: Jane Eyre (4/5*)

 I've seen a handful of Jane Austen/Bronte adaptions, some of my favorites being Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility and Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice. But none of them quite compare to the latest, in a long line of adaptations, of Jane Eyre

 They all share typical traits: familial dynamics(or lack thereof), English countryside setting, struggling fortunes, issues of social class, mobility and intermarriage, and of course romantic love. This is all tied together by a young female protagonist, too smart and independent for her time, trying to survive, adapt, and ultimately find happiness if not love.

Jane Eyre is not all that different in that sense. Jane, being orphaned as a child, is sent to a cold and abusive all-girls' school by her aunt for being "disagreeable". Coming of age, she finds fulfilling employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, the estate of the moody and secretive Mr. Rochester. Thus the romantic pursuits ensue.

But the movie doesn't start there. It starts with Jane standing in a doorway, facing a cold and grey morning about to run into the misty wilderness. That's precisely what the film focuses on: Jane in the wilderness, going from one place to next, hoping to find what she's looking for. She's far from optimistic or naive. In fact she's quite intelligent, moral, and self-reliant. Through her eyes we see the dubious, if not simple, human beings around her and the unpredictable world they live in. Life is hard, she learns, and so she asks for little to be satisfied with except for her own sense of morals and dignity. These principals are to be challenged in her pursuit for home and happiness.

Cinematographer Adriano Goldman works with Fukunaga here for the 2nd time, and with muted colors envelops the characters in a sense of creepy mystery - this more than any other trait is what separates this adaptation from any other. It recognizes that this isn't just an adaptation, it's also a movie and they make use of it. The camera is unhinged, and becomes part of the action, in fact part of Jane's psychology: walking down a foggy path, hearing a sound late at night, hearing her name being called. We feel as she feels, especially every shock and fright, as much as any typical horror movie.
And there are some legitimately scary scenes, but all-in-all it's still a very romantic movie, emphasized and appreciated all the more for not being sickeningly saccharine. 

Adaptations are tricking things. A good number of them fail miserably - in my opinion - due to a failure to evoke the same atmosphere and emotions that the original text does.They transfer the who, what, when, and why of the plot. Good, and great, adaptations like Jane Eyre succeed so well at showing the how.

*Jane Eyre (2011) dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga. Perf. Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins. Focus Features.