Jane Eyre enters into its third weekend (II)

Lots of reviews of Jane Eyre 2011 today as the film opens in more US cities.

Positive

Many news outlets, such as The Star Phoenix, feature a review by Katherine Monk (Postmedia News). The film gets 4 out of 5 stars:

Wasikowska creates a Jane who is believably fearless and vulnerable at the same time, and one who has enough depth of character and intellectual smarts to see the bigger picture around her without being seduced by short-term gain.
She carries the strength in her character's square shoulders, and it's a posture Fukunaga meets in mirror form through the camera. Most of the film is composed through headon frames, without angles -meaning we're square to the architecture, and the characters -lending the whole experience a painterly quality. The images rotate between muted landscapes and cold interiors, all emulating canvas, from the pastoral tableaus of John Constable to the chiaroscuro of Rembrandt.
The movie is also bathed in harsh, natural light, and the effect is entirely apropos to Fukunaga's vision for the whole film as narrative document, instead of melodrama. [...]
Fukunaga doesn't betray any element of Brontë's book, least of all the tone. He keeps a steady hand all the way through, without falling prey to potential melodrama. [...]
Potentially one of the best Jane Eyres ever realized on screen, Fukunaga's take might seem to douse the flames of passion in favour of moderate heat, but it's refreshing to take a breath in such a breathless story, and feel secure in the knowledge our heroine is rock solid, unflappable and non-flammable, while remaining all human.

Tom Long from The Detroit News is very enthusiastic, particularly when it comes to Mia Wasikowska, both on video and on text, giving it an A-.

Wasikowska has a face that can go from plain to dazzling in an instant; it can bring to life a complex range of reactions and then land on just the right one. She is beautiful and average and all things in between when she needs to be, and beyond that filled with both raw emotion and powerful sophistication.
In other words, this is one heck of a young actress. She doesn't play Jane Eyre. She makes Jane Eyre her own. [...]
But somehow Wasikowska makes it all seem much more personal, more real. With her stark, starched dresses and blunt, elastic face, she draws you in, making both Jane's pain and incredible resolve tangible.
She doesn't make the old new again; she makes it good again, far better than you'd imagine.
There's unexpected fire in this "Jane Eyre." One can only imagine — and look forward to — what heat Wasikowska will bring elsewhere.

World Magazine:

Instead of relying on shots of candles flickering over the stony face of a creaking house, director Cary Fukunaga downplays the Gothic creepiness and omits one of the book's harrowing scenes, in which a madwoman tears Jane's wedding veil in two. Instead, Fukunaga creates emotional intensity by focusing on Jane—beautifully portrayed by Mia Wasikowska, who has a face that alternately conceals and reveals the passion locked inside a girl who has been cowed into outward propriety.
With excellent supporting performances featuring Judi Dench as the garrulous housekeeper and Michael Fassbender as the "abrupt and changeful" Mr. Rochester, this latest adaptation (rated PG-13 for a nude image and brief violence) proves that Jane's passion and sense of right can woo another generation. (Alisa Harris)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune gives it 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

It's a bold approach, but one that honors Brontë's favorite literary gimmick. She was a master of generating suspense by dropping clues and hints while withholding the secrets we're dying to discover. This flashback-filled adaptation, written by Moira Buffini and directed by Cary Fukunaga, does her proud. (Colin Covert)

Colin Covert also discusses the film on video.

Philly News:

Also holding our interest is the movie's ravishing, understated presentation. Director Cary Fukunaga's first film - the harrowing migrant story "Sin Nombre" - was ripped for being too beautiful.
His instinct for the showy image will not be a point of contention here. The cool beauty he brings to "Jane Eyre" complements the long tradition of costume drama style. (Gary Thompson)

Indie Movies Online:

Wasikowska gives us a Jane bristling with courage, her head held high – and yet her face can be surprisingly elastic. When she finds herself unexpectedly in love, the grim, defensive set of her mouth melts and she is lit from within, radiant. This isn't an easy part ... given the story's melodrama, Jane could fall into traps of the priggish, or the mousey, or the morally condescending. Wasikowska floats above the pitfalls, allowing us to embrace Jane as the beloved young woman she was always meant to be.
As for Fassbender, while it's probably not hard to erase the shadows of some previous Rochesters (the oddly-cast George C. Scott, the embarrassingly-wigged William Hurt), Fassbender's portrayal of the Byronic hero also has to contend with such iconic performances as that of the young Orson Welles. However, with his clear-eyed intelligence and towering on-screen authority, Fassbender gives us a wonderful rogue of a man, daring any female to try to tame him. The leads' chemistry is beautifully captured by director Fukunaga, sculpting the highly-charged, yet still very real moments. [...]
Rating on a scale of 5 hopes that Mia won't ever wear that hairdo again: 4 (Kimberly Gadette)

The St Louis Beacon:

Mia Wasikowska (“Alice in Wonderland”) is superb in a revelatory performance as Jane, who thinks of herself as “plain” and dresses and wears her hair accordingly, but has a fierce intelligence and wit to go with her iron will. Wasikowska lets us see the real Jane in her bright eyes, in the tilting corners of her mouth, and in her small but forceful gestures. She’s unlike any of the other women we meet in the story, and we can see why Rochester, the handsome, soul-tortured master of the house (Michael Fassbender, appropriately Byronic and mercurial), cannot resist her.
In addition to an excellent cast that includes Judi Dench as a kindly housekeeper and Sally Hawkins as the dissolute aunt, a principal reason the new movie of “Jane Eyre” is so successful – much better than the 1996 version with William Hurt as a neurotic Rochester – is that the director was not afraid of the material. “Jane Eyre” is unabashedly a romance – perhaps the romance – and Fukunaga stages it that way, particularly in the scenes in the majestic moors where the stormy heavens and the brutal earth seem complicit in a conspiracy to destroy Jane Eyre. You have two choices with a movie like this: either dismiss it as too ferociously romantic, or let it sweep you away. (Harper Barnes)

Saint Louis Today:

This is a version of "Jane Eyre" that should be pleasing to purists, but lively and compelling enough to attract some new devotees to an austere tale of tragic romance and personal triumph. And if you miss it, don't feel too bad, another version will be along in another decade or two, just like clockwork. (Matthew DeKinder)

Mostly positive

The Criterion Cast:

An aspect of Jane Eyre that disappoints is the dilution of several key themes of the novel, making this adaptation a bit more simplistic than it ultimately should be. In regards of Jane’s character, the novel makes it explicitly clear throughout that she has a fear of losing her freedom. Being locked in the Red Room is a literal example. Her romance with Rochester is a continual inner struggle because she fears losing her identity through marriage. She needs to be in control of her own freedom and identity and this aspect of her character is not explored enough. This specific gender issue would have been refreshing to examine, considering so few romance stories bother to do so. Thankfully, Wasikowska captures the rest of her character so perfectly, that one can only complain about this up to a point.
Similarly, Bertha Mason ceases to be relevant in any way whereas she is probably the most analyzed aspect of Brontë’s novel. Granted, she is in such a small portion of the book, it is hard to expect much. Here though, she is never given the chance to have a purpose, much less a symbol. Lastly, Jane and Rochester’s romance is more conventionally structured here. Their mutual affection for each other makes itself known sooner and in a more straightforward and obvious manner than the novel does. Whether this is a flaw is unclear. On the one hand, I admired the complexities of the novel more but on the other hand, I was more taken in by their romance in this film.
In the end though, the film should be taken as its own work. A film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is impossible to discuss without addressing the source material, particularly when taking into account how many times this story has been adapted to the screen. Jane Eyre succeeds because what it does take on is executed with memorable specificity as well as containing some of the best chemistry between two romantic leads in years. For those who are sick of the kinds of romance films that come put today, whether comedy, drama or fantasy, Jane Eyre provides an opportunity to revisit a classic. Was yet another adaptation necessary? Probably not, but it is hard to imagine anyone complaining about it after seeing Fukunaga and Buffini’s splendid interpretation. (Catherine Stebbins)

The Houston Chronicle rather than review the film tells all about the story, spoilers and all, which is quite weird.

The new film, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, follows this great tradition. Director Cary Fukunaga doesn't quite get the ages right —Wasikowska is 21 to Fassbender's 33 — but it's close. Wasikowska looks perfect as Jane, her plainness gesturing toward the ethereal, but she's a bit placid. She delivers her lines with fire, but I wanted more smoke and flames behind her eyes.
Fassbender is too good-looking for Rochester and too slim; he's missing thickness and gravitas. But he's a great actor and nails the flirty scenes with Wasikowska's Jane. Reader, I have fallen for him, too. (Maggie Galehouse)

The Philadelphia Inquirer gives it 3 out of 4 stars:

Fukunaga and Buffini have just the right balance of respect and irreverence for the source material. And even though I feel that the stormy weather and thundercracks would have been more at home in a Mel Brooks parody, by movie's end I was swept away. And not by the rain. (Carrie Rickey)

The Taipei Times:

Yet another adaptation of a classic Victorian novel with quaint costumes and funny mannerisms of speech might sound a little too familiar, but this version of the doomed romance between Jane and Mr Rochester created by the young American Japanese director Cary Joji Fukunaga takes the story by the neck, shakes it out from the clasp of well-mannered British domestic drama, and puts it firmly back on the wild Yorkshire moors where passion and madness run side by side. The two stars, Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, are much more physically attractive than their characters are described in Charlotte Brontë’s novel, but their performances are strong enough to make up for it. (Ian Bartholomew and Ho Yi)

CineDork gives it '8 Creepy old dudes hitting on young girls out of 10'.

Lukewarm

The tone of the review from We Are Movie Geeks - which gives the film 3.5 stars out of 5 - is set right at the beginning:

It may come as no surprise that I am not the world’s leading expert, nor am I the world’s biggest fan, of period English chick lit, which serves as the source material for a new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, originally published in 1847. There’s no doubt the book has had enormous influence on literature and irrefutable popularity, as many of the women I know jump to the opportunity to claim this as a favorite required reading from their school years. [...]
The pace of Jane Eyre, at a length of 115 minutes, is neither slow nor upbeat. The film clearly has it’s peaks and valleys, both in pace and intrigue. At times, most often when Jane and Mr. Rochester converse, the film is dynamic with dialogue delivered with great timing and subdued intensity, yet at other times in between the drab story is made bearable only by the creative crafts of Goldman and Marianelli. To be honest, Jane Eyre is much more bearable as an English period drama than I had expected, a welcome surprise, refusing to succumb to the typical soap opera nature of the literary fare… well, until the end, but what can a director do when the source material insists upon sappy endings? (Travis Keune)

Period English chicklit indeed.

Negative

The Belleville News-Democrat gives it 2 1/2 stars:

If you are going to remake a story that has already been given numerous film and TV treatments, you must bring something fresh to it. Other than a more naturalistic setting than the 1944 Orson Welles-Joan Fontaine opus, this "Jane Eyre" doesn't top those that have gone before, not trying anything bold or all that different.
Fans of the Ruth Wilson-Toby Stephens one or the Charlotte Gainsbourg-William Hurt version won't forget those any time soon either. If anyone remembers the George C. Scott-Susannah York one, it was clear that good acting could transcend ordinary production values.
This production is as sterile as a copy in the acid-free section of the library. A few characters spring to life -- Sally Hawkins is a vile guardian, Jamie Bell inhabits a more mature role as a minister wishing to marry Jane, while Judi Densch is multi-dimensional as the head housekeeper at Thornfield Hall.
But the main problem is the romance: Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender don't have much chemistry as plain tormented Jane Eyre and the brooding Mr. Rochester, who is arrogantly hiding dark secrets. (Lynn Venhaus)

Vanity Fair's Little Gold Men discusses the costumes created by Michael O'Connor.

He told Little Gold Men that Fukunaga’s approach to keeping an oft-told tale as fresh as possible was to go for utter authenticity: “There’s different versions [of Jane Eyre], but you can always tell the period [the movie] was made from hairstyles and such. We wanted to go back to the real thing, and set it really when we thought it was written—especially with the cottons, textiles, and textures we used. They’re all based on real designs of the time.” Fortunately for O’Connor, there was no shortage of reference materials. He researched all the children’s clothing at a children’s museum in London, and he even found an American Web site that had block prints of original 19th-century patterns, which he ended up using to make Jane Eyre’s final dress—topping it with a shawl original to the time and a bonnet made of straw from the period. “The lining, the buttons, the stitching, everything was totally researched. I always say, ‘Is there a reference for that, is that something they did?’ And if people say [they] don’t know, then I say we can’t do it—there’s so much information from that time that there’s no excuse not to have it.”
Does he ever feel tempted to slip in an out-of-context piece for dramatic effect? “It’s tempting, but there’s no need. The truth is interesting enough. Jane is a sort of plain character, but that doesn’t mean she’s unstylish. She’s wearing shades of gray with white collars, and she can still look quite smart or quite nice and serviceable—not overly fussy.” O’Connor found his fun in tweaking the shades of gray and white collars—subtle differences that you can see in these images. Although Jane Eyre appears to be wearing the same governess uniform over and over, the collar and shades of gray are changing slightly depending on her mood. This thinking extended to O’Connor’s one great opportunity to have fun with Jane’s sartorial choices: her wedding dress. “The thing was to make it simple. Rochester is always trying to buy her things, which she rejects because that’s her character. So [the aim] was to make it a simple dress, and shorten the length. Jane’s a country girl, it’s a country dress, and it’s fitted and tight-sleeved, rather like her day dresses, like her character.”
For Rochester, O’Connor took a functional approach: “For any character—Jane, or Rochester—you’ve got to think what they sleep in, when they wake up, what’s the natural thing for them to do, what do they put on first. It’s about being real and functional. In rural times, most of the time they stayed in riding clothes, especially Rochester, because they’re always out on the grounds,” he says. O’Connor’s aim for authenticity even extended to something the camera will never see: underwear. He explained that in Victorian times, men went commando; instead of wearing boxers, they had long shirts whose excess length (down to the knee) functioned as underwear. Even though you don’t always see it, this clothing quirk had a real effect that O’Connor needed to replicate: “When the shirt’s pushed into the trousers, it creates that smooth shape. If you don’t do that, you never make the trousers fit, and people would spend time wondering why it didn’t quite look the way it should.” Rochester’s one piece of real flair was his cravat, which O’Connor said Fukunaga was eager to display: “Cary was very keen on those; he’d send reference pictures he’d found. It’s very important for men—that’s the only way they get to show those things, the silk around their neck and the silk around their waistcoats.” (John Lopez)

Speaking of the costumes, LiveJournal user ingenu0us posts about the costume exhibit - with pictures - and also reviews the film.

Associated Content has a review of Jane Eyre 2011. Flieder on Film gives it a B-, The Regular Moviegoers Critic, Derrick Bang on Film, Lovely Day and Genevieve Valentine review the film as well.

Oh No They Didn't links to a video interview with Michael Fassbender.

Another Brontë-related film - of sorts - is Devotion (now available on demand, US-only), which is mentioned by The Record.

DEVOTION (1946, Warner Archive, unrated, $25) — In 1946, Warner Bros. attempted to turn the story of the Brontë sisters — Charlotte (Olivia De Havilland) and Emily (Ida Lupino) — into the kind of rain-battered, gothic romance they became famous for writing. The movie, which departs considerably from the facts, finds the sisters falling for the same man (Paul Henreid) while simultaneously yearning for literary success. It's fun to see how "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" took root in the Brontës' imaginations but the film lacks the depth of the sisters' best work. Available at wbshop. com. Extras: none. (Amy Longsdorf)

The Journal-Standard interviews writer Lisa Jackson:

Q. What books captured your imagination as a child and lit the fire that inspired your first stories?
A. I read anything I could get my hands on. (I grew up in a small timber town in Oregon where it rained and rained and rained! Remember – there were only three TV stations back in the 50’s& 60’s and Dad had control of what we watched.) I started with The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley, moved onto Nancy Drew stories by Carolyn Keene and eventually graduated to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I went for anything mysterious and kind of gothic with a little romance and, oh, yeah, I was one of those “horsie girls” in grade school. (DA Kentner)

New Kids on the Writer's Block interviews writer Delilah Marvelle:

When did you start writing? Did you begin with historical romance or did you have another genre of choice? [...]
When I read Jane Eyre in high school, I fell in love with historicals and knew that was what I wanted to write. [...]
According to your website, all your favorite authors are dead. Who are some living authors whose work inspires you?
Yes, lol. Some of my favorite “dead” authors include: Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Henryk Sienkiewicz, the Brontë sisters, Chaucer, Henry Fielding, and Hemingway. Of course the list is much larger than this, but I figured I'd share the main ones. (Jennieke Cohen)

Les Soeurs Brontë tries to look at Wuthering Heights without the artificial gothic added by Twilight and the like (in French). Dolce Bellezza, Readings and Things: A Blog About Books and A Bookish Way of Life all discuss Villette. Huujuu speculates about Branwell's masonic side. Fleapit of the Mind writes about Jane Eyre 1944 and My Favourite Books posts about April Lindner's Jane. Finally, Flickr user Weedh0pper has uploaded a few pictures from a high school production of Jane Eyre (Nederland High School).

Categories: Branwell Brontë, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Villette, Wuthering Heights