Wasikowska has excelled in Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right, and TV’s “In Treatment.” Fassbender has done the same in Fish Tank, Hunger, and Inglourious Basterds. And although it wouldn’t be seen the same way in contemporary society, we don’t have trouble thinking of equivalent revelations that would.ĭirector Cary Fukunaga ( Sin Nombre) is fortunate in having two principals whose work thus far is at the very least striking.
She is about to learn, willy-nilly, that he harbors a damaging secret about something so overwhelmingly shameful in the era being depicted, that it’s certain to scotch their union. Her relationship with the brooding Rochester, which has evolved from a curious friendship between kindred spirits who suffer for different reasons into a preoccupying romance between potential soulmates, appears headed towards the altar.īut society’s rules are about to assert themselves. Whatever they are allowed to say or do or show or know, they do love each other.įor the first time, the determined but pessimistic Jane seems happy. And as they spend more time together, the differences between them melt away and she falls for him.Īnd the feelings would appear to be mutual: he surely admires her spunk and there is an undeniable form of intimacy between them. READ MORE: Family Of Fallen Delaware County Firefighter Has Mortgage Fully Paid Offīut if she’s intimidated by him in the beginning, she doesn’t show it. He doesn’t appear to be handing out much of either when they first meet. Jane continues to look for elusive kindness and respect. There she goes about her business against the background of a harsh rural landscape that mirrors her isolation and modest level of expectation, then finally meets her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester, a moody and troubled, brusquely sensitive aristocrat, played with unforced charisma by Michael Fassbender. Mia Wasikowska plays the titular protagonist, a poor, plain-speaking, and observant young woman, plain in appearance, who struggles to become independent against all odds after surviving a dreadfully bleak childhood, then getting work as a governess for the young French ward of the master of Thorfield Hall, a remote estate in the north of England. The classic Gothic novel by Charlotte Bronte, published in 1847, is a period romance that has surfaced to speak to audiences in many different periods, about a romance between two characters haunted by their respectively troubled pasts.
With apologies to Alexander Pope, there’s no need to forgive this version of Jane Eyre - the latest among many, perhaps two dozen, down through the years for screens big and small - because it honors the source material without being slavishly reverent and makes the material seem freshly observed. READ MORE: First Confirmed Cases Of COVID-19 Omicron Variant Reported In Philadelphia, New Jersey