Jane Eyre 2011 enters into its fourth weekend (III)

Rotten Tomatoes: 85 % Fresh ( 7.5/10. Reviews 87: 74 Fresh, 13 Rotten) Audience: 80 % (3.8/5. User ratings: 12301)

Metacritic: 77/100 (based on 34 critics)

Imdb: 663 IMDb users have given a weighted average vote of 8.0 / 10

Positive

Northweast The Explorer:

Beautifully acted and filmed, "Jane Eyre" is a riveting retelling of Charlotte Brontë's timeless Gothic drama. (Wendy Miller)

The Paly Voice:

Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre is classic without being too stuffy, and fresh without being too modernistic. It’s a must-see for any lovers of the novel, and a should-see for any lovers of great filmmaking. I promise you’ll find that this Jane is anything but plain. (Grace Barry)

Battleship Pretension:

I can’t imagine a better film having been made from Charlotte Brontë’s novel.  Buffini and Fukunaga understand precisely what is captivating and downplay what isn’t.  While it’s true that some of the plot contrivances of the last act are a bit too convenient for comfort, that has always been the case.  The filmmakers involved take pains to convey that Jane arrives at being the person she is at the end on her own, with or without the story pieces that happen to fall into place for her. (David Bax)

Balitang America:

And with the supporting cast featuring Dame Judi Dench this Jane Eyre film adaptation very well captures the spirit of the book. (Manny the Movie Guy)

Atomic Popcorn:

If the subject matter is your cup of tea, then you’ll enjoy this timely remake.  Wasikowska is coming into her peak with this film, and if the year progresses light on dramatic performances, don’t be surprised to see her name appear on a nominee ballot.  Ditto for Judi Dench – her accessibility to Jane in the third act of the film caused an instinctual thought of a supporting actress nod. (Rock Young)

eFilmcritic:

Despite the usual abridgements and compressions associated with adapting a novel to the big screen (as opposed to the more leisurely demand of, say, a television mini-series), Jane Eyre succeeds on practically every level, as a respectful adaptation of the source material, as a critique of Victorian society and gender roles limited by social convention and class, and as a gothic romance with supernatural undertones, impressively realized by Fukunaga, his cinematographer, Adriano Goldman, and his production designer, Will Hughes-Jones (among many others). The decision to use real locations, often grey and wintry, apt reflections of characters and their inner lives, along with the occasional handheld camera (in the opening scene, for example), sets Fukunaga’s adaptation, if not above earlier adaptations, then certainly their equals. (Mel Valentin)

Shockya:

While fans of the novel may question why another theatrical film adaptation was developed, Fukunaga’s version of ‘Jane Eyre’ will surely please both the story’s fans and those who aren’t familiar with the tale.  (Karen Benardello)

Row Three:

Fukunaga’s take on this story is respectful of the characters, the themes and the audience which is, for the most part, already familiar with the material. This version of the film feels much more accessible than some of the earlier versions. It could have something to do with the actors but also with the film as a whole which doesn’t feel tied down and held back by the archaic language.
I love that Fukunaga took on this challenge and succeeded and I would love for him to tackle more classic romances but I appreciate that he is a director that likes to keep things fresh and interesting. (Marina Antunes)

The Film Stage:

There’s both an accessibility and an artistic touch to this film that highlights a myriad of talents from all involved. This is the kind of filmmaking that should celebrated by audiences and critics alike: when a story is told and told again, and then finally told like you’d never heard it before. (Dan Mecca)

Other positive reviews on Early Nerd Special; Jonathan Lack at the Movies; Heroes and Heartbreakers, The Book Club, Black Sheep Reviews, Filmsoundoff, Anomalous Material, Tonight at the Movies and Movie Reviews by FAQs.

Mostly Positive

The Awl features a dialogue between a Brontë connaisseur who overally likes the film but complains about some of the ignored subplots and a Brontë ignorant who, nevertheless, loved the film:

Dan: Claire Jarvis! I really liked Cary Fukunaga's film of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. But I know next to nothing about Brontë, having read maybe one-fifth of the novel in 11th grade. You're an assistant professor in the English department at Stanford, a Brontë scholar and a superfan. Tell me why I'm wrong to like this movie so much! (...)
Claire: No, no. I think what I would say is: the movie IS better than I said (initially) as a movie. But, when you adapt a novel, you do have to make a lot of choices. I guess I would have made some different choices, but I think anyone would. That's maybe the pleasure of being able to make a movie of a novel you love. (Dan Kois)

The Columbus Dispatch:

Director Cary Fukunaga ( Sin Nombre) cloaks his film in all the requisite shadows and candlelit corridors that suit the material, but the production is strongest when the leads are parrying in the give-and-take that characterizes the best romantic dramas. (...)
It might not be as exhilarating as other staples of the genre, but it will do in a pinch. (Frank Gabrenya)

Salt Lake City Weekly:

Any feature-length adaptation of Jane Eyre faces the same what-to-keep/what-to-ditch problem facing any adaptation of a sprawling literary work. Buffini opts to condense Jane’s childhood into around 15 minutes of screen time, which allows little opportunity to see the experiences that build Jane’s independent-minded worldview. It’s a gamble on the centrality of the Jane/Rochester relationship—and if it doesn’t work, there’s nothing left.
Fortunately, it basically works.(...)
So if the romance works, what’s the problem? It’s that so much energy is devoted to that element of the story, almost nothing else works. (...)
Devotees of a great literary work are rarely going to be satisfied with a truncated feature-film version, picking at every alteration and omission. But this Jane Eyre reminds us that the specifics of the condensation are less relevant than what that process does to a story that feels vital and expansive on the page: It results in something that generally feels thin and shallow. Unless you’re going to go the miniseries route, there’s almost no way around that dilemma. It really doesn’t matter how many adaptations of Jane Eyre we get, as long as the ones we do get actually feel like Jane Eyre. (Scott Renshaw)

Express Milwaukee:

The gothic setting with its spooky castle amid a misty forest is conducive to a tale of horror, even one whose ghosts result from the wrongdoing of humanity. (David Luhrssen)

Cinefile:

All around, from the production design go the execution of regional dialects, Jane Eyre has the winning elements for an exceptional drama. The problem here really lies with its site-specific source--the weight of its novel and its crisis of its domineering social antiquity overshadowing any of its timelessness. (Nelson Carvajal)

DVDPinson:

The latest incarnation of “Jane Eyre” is a blend of contemporary and classical storytelling making for a sort of hybrid entertainment. The film sounds ages old, pulling the words directly from the influential 1847 novel of the same name. Simultaneously the film looks and feels modern with breathtaking cinematography and vital performances. The mixture makes for an intriguing affair that should appeal to audiences unfamiliar with the material as well as those well versed.

Sound on Sight:

Despite the shortcuts and missed opportunities, Fukunaga’s rendition is more than worth seeing thanks to Wasikowska and Fassbender, as well as the consistently lovely cinematography courtesy of DP Adriano Goldman, her collaborator on Sin Nombre. The unforced emphasis on natural light and the bleak landscapes combine with Fukunaga’s expressive camerawork and the relatively naturalistic performance style to avoid – not unlike in Jane Campion’s Bright Star – the musty atmosphere of many period films. Fukunaga hasn’t attempted to reinvent the tale beyond accenting its Gothic undertones, but it’s a solid effort nonetheless. (Simon Howell)

icPlaces:

It looks good, it does the job, and it has an interesting lead actress. It may not dig as deep as the best Jane Eyres; but you may not realize that till later. (David Knipp)

Charity's Place:

This is a great film and embodies the Gothic themes from the novel. Michael Fassbender makes an excellent Edward Rochester and Mia Wasikowska is excellent as the frightful but strong governess. The two actors had amazing chemistry and made this movie work. The cinematography is fantastic and I loved the dark Gothic-Victorian backdrop. It’s true to the nature of the book but, as most film renditions of literature are, there’s always deviation from the plot and it does have a few mistakes and errors. The film doesn’t chronologically follow the book and most of it is presented as flashbacks to Jane’s life, but I thought that was an interesting spin on the story.  (Shannon H.)

More: An Accomplished Young Lady, Rebellious Pigtails and The Critical Critics.


Lukewarm:

Poughkeepsie Journal:

The latest screen adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel is beautifully acted by Mia Wasikowska and beautifully shot by director Cary Joji Fukunaga, but it doesn't exactly reinvent the Gothic romance for a new generation.

Exclaim:

Jane Eyre was never a happy-happy, Austen-esque story to begin with, and Fukunaga enhances this aspect skillfully, dousing what should be a Hollywood ending in quiet suffering. Clocking in at two hours, with many maudlin moments, Jane Eyre could use a tighter edit, as there is too much loitering and not enough bounce in the pace. (Christine Estima)

Other: Sharon's Views, Ruelle Electrique, PopDose.

Negative:

The Lawrentian:

I wanted to see Fukunaga's film as a new and different interpretation of one of my favorite novels, an interpretation that I might not be able to put precisely into words but that did something unique with the text.
Instead I'm finding the only conclusion I can make is that Fukunaga tried to do too many things in a two-hour movie and failed to fully actualize any of them. (Bridget Donnelly)

BigFanBoy:

There are some major problems with Jane Eyre, all falling on the shoulders of director Cary Fukunaga. He never finds the romance between Jane and Rochester. There is no passion with glances, no steamy desire. When the two touch, there should be some electricity instead of the dull thud delivered. The other problem with the film is that it looks horrible. The lighting is flat and the colors dull. We get no sense of warmth in the background and it affects the characters in the foreground. One wonders just how such a flat flick could have been approved. (Gary Murray)

Big Picture Big Sound:

This adaptation achieves what it sets out to do: offer a moody, understated version of the story that doesn't put the audience to sleep and is designed to appeal to more than middle aged women with a thing for its hunky hero. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer much more than that. It's entertaining enough, but not terribly memorable. If you're really interested in what has given "Jane Eyre" such staying power, you won't find it in this film. (Beth McCabe)

Other negative reviews: Easy Breezy Beautiful Bloofan.

The Tidings and Télérama (France) present the movie. USA Today's PopCandy wants to see it and Milford Patch,   review the film. The London Evening Star talks about and with Harry Lloyd, Richard Mason in Jane Eyre 2011 and the ASCA agency (Italy) mentions Valentina Cervi's role as Bertha. Origo (Hungary) interviews Jamie Bell. The Clothes Make the Girl has won a Jane Eyre prize pack.
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The Telegraph recommends a visit to Haworth and Brontë Country:

There was a brief flurry of publicity last month when perhaps the most famous work from any of the Brontë family, Wuthering Heights, was adapted for the Sunday play on BBC Radio Three.

Given the play's mixed reviews, a better way to tune into the sights and sounds that inspired the Brontës may be a visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

Based in the old family home, the museum is opening a new sound installation later this month, inspired by the Brontës' letters. There is also a special exhibition, until March 31 next year, dedicated to Patrick Brontë, whose children produced some of the finest novels of the 19th century. (Jolyon Attwooll)

The New York Times' 6th Floor is looking for the very best sentence read in all of March 2011:

This means our Final Four looks like this:
A. “There is only one person in this house worthy of being liked — also another who seems a rosy sugar-plum but I know her to be coloured chalk.” (Charlotte Brontë)
That sentence, inscribed in the front of a young Charlotte Brontë’s schoolbook, was our first-ever winner, which gives it a slight edge for sentimental reasons. (Sam Anderson)

Associated Press talks albout the quite extraordinary treasure hunt planned at the New York Library (check it out here). The article reminds us of some of the Brontë treasures held there:

The three-storey library, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, houses 65 million items, including a Gutenberg Bible, the first substantial printed book in the Western world; the first edition of the sheet music of "The Star-Spangled Banner"; writing desks belonging to Emily Brontë and Dickens; and one of the oldest known terrestrial globes, known as the Hunt Lenox Globe, from 1510. (Ul Ilnytzky)

It's a good time to reminisce about when BrontëBlog visited the Berg Collection at the NYPL.

The New York Times quotes Michelle Williams talking about her new film Meek's Cutoff by Kelly Reichardt:

“There was a quote I remembered that I had liked when I was 18 or something, that popped into my head: ‘I’ll go where my own nature would be leading,’ ” Ms. Williams said of her character, Emily Tetherow. The verse, by Emily Brontë, which continues, “It vexes me to choose another guide,” proves peculiarly apt for Mrs. Tetherow, who emerges as Meek’s prime skeptic and becomes an unusually vocal opponent. (Nicolas Rapold)

Interestingly, Michelle Williams was for a time attached to Angela Workman's Brontë biopic as Charlotte Brontë.

And the Washington Post  reviews Cat Run:

This heavily plotted mash-up centers on the striking [Paz] Vega, who plays Caterina, a globe-trotting call girl. But its real star is upscale actress Janet McTeer, doing a Helen Mirren as a posh hitwoman and torturer who identifies herself variously as Virginia Woolf or Emily Brontë. It seems that “Cat Run’” scripters Nick Ball and John Niven have read some books, or at least met people who have. (Mark Jenkins)

The Times has an article about the most important art tweeters:

20 Josie Long @josielong Before a tirade against the arts cuts took over, the comedian took whimsical trips to the Brontë parsonage or the Ashmolean Museum. (Laura Silverman)

The tweet in question:

I went to the Brontë parsonage museum today. Felt genuinely a bit starstruck to be in Emily Brontë's house.What a day trip, what ladies!

The Age reviews Sebastian Faulks's Faulks on Fiction:

Heathcliff's cries of pain and passion are as memorable as any tragic hero's. Even if it's Cathy who articulates the vision of Wuthering Heights, he's the unerasable dramatic face of the story.
In this last instance, Faulks, who is only interested in being a critic on the run, pauses to wonder just how good Emily Bronte's book is given its lopsidedness, its savagery, its melodrama. This is attractive and allows the reader quite a lot of room to move and scratch his head. (Peter Craven)

The Hindu interviews author Manju Kapur:

The range of texts you taught was varied: Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Mill on the Floss, Mrs. Dalloway. Which do you strongly believe in?
As a teacher, you look at texts that are teachable, which means that there are lot of themes and issues to discuss. That way, all were very rich. But if I had to choose one, I would choose Jane Eyre. Because she fought so much in every situation, she followed her inner diktat. She was a fighter and, of course, there was a huge element of romance, which is always satisfying. (Neha Dixit)

Another author, Sarah Pawley, is interviewed on Fly High!:

Is there any of you in Gracie [character from Finding Grace]?
I think there’s a little bit of every writer in their hero or heroine. Gracie and I have a lot in common, especially our love for Jane Eyre. We both identify with the struggle of being ourselves in a world that wants to mold us into an ideal form

ShinyShiny describis the Facebook app LikeAudience like this:

Go on and check it out. You can search by page, and also set the personality parameters to find, for example, what older, smart liberal women like (Wuthering Heights) or what younger conservative single men like (The Indian Premier League and Coke Studio, for example). NB: not all pages are registered yet, so only the larger ones are available. (Anna Leach)

Exclaim talks about Ladyhawk's Footprints video:

As for the video, have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch Kate Bush, circa "Wuthering Heights," sexily dancing around a miniature obelisk in a darkened room while being filmed on a broken Betamax camera with an ounce of Vaseline resting on its fish eye lens? Well, here's your answer. (Gregory Adams)

DNA (India) discusses imperfect literary heroes:

What makes a hero heroic in the literary world is certainly debatable.
Darcy’s pride and arrogance in Pride and Prejudice, Heathcliff’s wild rakishness in Wuthering Heights, Rhett Butler’s roguishness in Gone with the Wind... have not been forgotten. In fact, these elusive characters are etched in the romance reader’s memory. (...)
Rupa Gulab, author of The Great Depression of the 40s, says, “Our expectations have become reasonable over time. You have the heroes of the Brontë sisters (Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, both published in 1847) — Rochester has an insane, pyromaniac wife and there’s the gypsy Heathcliff and there’s a lot of anguish — way too heavy for the romance genre, which is why Jane Austen’s heroes are more popular. (Jayeeta Mazumder)

This column in the Arizona Daily Star describes a visit to San Diego's SeaWorld with a Brontë humourous reference:

Since our family is dominated by adolescent testosterone levels that would make the cast of "Porky's" feel like a "Jane Eyre" casting call, we toured the USS Midway.

A Brontë reference in an article about a cricket game? We have it. In The Guardian discussing the latest India vs Sri Lanka game:

After Tendulkar's let offs the other day, India and the UDRS is becoming the most torrid relationship this side of Heathcliff and Cathy. (Rob Smyth)

El País (Uruguay) reviews Talking about Detective Fiction by P.D. James:

El análisis es amable y sutil en los detalles, a veces ubicando a la autora en su época, tan distinta a la actual en el género. O se pregunta por el enigma principal: por qué una autora talentosa como [Ngaio] Marsh, por ejemplo, no era simplemente una escritora, como Emily Brönte (sic), en vez de "bajar" al género. (Elvio E. Gandolfo) (Translation)

Página 12 (Argentina) talks about governesses:

“Yo tenía que correr detrás de mis alumnas, llevarlas o arrastrarlas hasta la mesa y, con frecuencia, tenerlas sujetas a la fuerza hasta que la lección había terminado”, dice Agnès Grey (sic), la heroína de Anne Brontë, la institutriz entre institutrices. Anne Brontë, que trabajó como institutriz toda su vida, escribió a su hermana Emily, que detestaba ese trabajo: “La tarea de la instrucción es ardua para el cuerpo y la mente”. Muy lejos del espíritu jovial de Julie Andrews y del de Laura Conforte, y más cerca del de las hermanas Brontë, a la verdadera Maria Kutschera, luego Fräulein von Trapp, le sobrevenían unos ataques de furia que dejaban paralizados a sus hijastros. (Laura Ramos) (Translation)

Die Welt (Germany) reviews the exhibition Series of Portraits: A Century of Photographs at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg). The reviewer compares one of the exhibited series (The Brown Sisters by Nicholas Nixon) with the Brontës:

"The Brown Sisters" - bereits im Titel der Fotoserie von Nicholas Nixon schwingt etwas Eingeschworenes, Geheimnisvolles mit; wir denken an eine Gruppe herausragender, vielleicht tragisch verbundener, berühmter Frauen. Wie die Brontë-Schwestern zum Beispiel, gemeinsam heimisch in den Traumwelten Gondal und Angria, die keinem Außenstehenden offen standen. Über die Brown-Sisters wissen wir wenig; eine von ihnen ist die Frau des Fotografen. Bebe Brown Nixon und ihre Schwestern Heather, Mimi und Laurie posieren seit 1975 jährlich für den amerikanischen Künstler, der mit einer 8 mal 10 Großformat-Kamera eindringliche Gruppenporträts der schlanken, auf spröde Weise sehr schönen Frauen anfertigt. Anders als die Brontës konnten die Browns nebeneinander altern. (Translation)

A librarian and Brontëite in the Hope Standard; a Brontë reference in The Mighty Walzer by Howard Jacobson from which NPR publishes an excerpt; the Daily Mail publishes another excerpt from My Boy Butch by Jenni Murray with a Wuthering Heights reference; Tawny Burgess chooses on Polyvore a Jane Eyre set of dress and complements; My Grammar of Ornament posts a visual summary of Jane Eyre; a room of her own reviews Wuthering Heights; chancapalabras (in Spanish) posts about Jane Eyre; Heroes and Heartbreakers asks if you belong to Team Rochester or Team Heathcliff (not both?); Daring To Do (in Italian) covers several Jane Eyre adaptations; L'Union (France) mentions a student trip to Haworth.

Categories: Brontëites, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights