Not worth fussing about

Yorkshire Evening Post gives 5 stars to Northern Ballet's take on Jane Eyre.

Northern Ballet’s revival of Jane Eyre is a haunting, poetic distillation of the beloved novel that speaks to its audience in movement as eloquently as Charlotte Brontë’s work did in wordsë

With undeniably beautiful choreography from Cathy Marston, the production at Leeds Grand Theatre strips the story to its core - but loses none of its power. It’s a visceral and deeply affecting interpretation of the protagonist’s journey from abused orphan to fully grown woman.

From the opening moments, the production grips the audience. Young Jane is sketched in sharp, staccato movements. We see her bullied by her cruel cousins and banished to Lowood School, where deprivation and tragedy shape her resilience. [...]

And the set’s abstract nature also heightens the production’s dreamlike quality. A particularly striking element is the evocation of fire: thick smoke and a wash of searing orange light transform the stage into a terrifying inferno as Bertha - wild and untamed in a ragged red dress - torches Rochester’s bed and later crashes his doomed wedding to Jane.

The relationship between Jane and Rochester is electric, their duets an intense push and pull, filled with longing, restraint and barely contained passion.

For a novel as sprawling as Jane Eyre, the two-hour run time is impressively condensed. Yet the story never feels rushed, the key moments seamlessly flowing into one another. Even those unfamiliar with the book will feel its narrative pulse in every leap and lift. (James Connolly)

Harper's Bazaar sums up what people are complaining about after seeing Margot Robbie's pictures as Cathy in a wedding dress,

Robbie was seen on the set of Wuthering Heights in paparazzi photos that were published in March 2025. The photos show her seemingly in the midst of a wedding scene, strolling the misty English moors while wearing a voluminous white ball gown, a long gauzy veil, a diamond tiara, and a bridal bouquet.

Faithful fans were quick to point out physical discrepancies between Robbie’s onscreen portrayal and Catherine’s depiction in the book: Robbie was seen with her signature blonde hair while the novel describes her character as having dark-brown hair. Others accused the adaptation of favoring aesthetics over historical accuracy due to the anachronistic style of Catherine’s wedding dress. White wedding dresses, for instance, were not commonly worn until the Victorian era, which doesn’t occur until decades after the events in the novel. (Although, considering the fact that most major period movies depict brides in white wedding dresses, classic literature fans just might have to give up on this fight.) Besides the hue of the dress, critics also took issue with the design, deriding the inclusion of glitter—which wasn’t invented until 1934—as the so-called Bridgerton effect. (Chelsey Sanchez)

And so does Vogue:

Earlier this week, photos of Robbie on the Wuthering Heights set surfaced online, sparking instant discourse. One of the major points of contention was Robbie’s costume: a white off-the-shoulder wedding dress, outfitted with embellished poufy sleeves, a basque corseted bodice, and a shimmering voluminous ball skirt. The bridal look—which seemed as though it was more befitting of the 1980s than the early 1800s—was complete with a cathedral veil anchored by a tiara and a rose and hydrangea bouquet.

But it wasn’t just the dress’s more modern interpretation that peeved English majors of yore: it was the dress period. As many were quick to point out, wedding dresses as we know them didn’t exist until Queen Victoria popularized the now-traditional white with her 1840 marriage to Prince Albert. Since Emily Brontë’s story takes place around 40 years before, a white wedding dress would be far from the norm. The voluminous silhouette would also be abnormal for the time. The neoclassical style was still in fashion; flowing dresses with empire waists were de rigueur.

While the dress is definitely not a faithful period recreation, it’s not worth fussing about—yet. (Nor is it worth using as a bellwether to predict the film’s success.) As we know from Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, Fennell is a stylish filmmaker with a strong aesthetic vision. We wouldn’t expect anything less from her Wuthering Heights adaptation. So, why don’t we just let Margot Robbie and Emerald Fennell do their thing, and we can reserve judgments for opening weekend? (Hannah Jackson)

We wholeheartedly agree.

The Eyre Guide posts about an episode from the 1970 TV show Solo in which Janet Suzman played Charlotte Brontë. It's on YouTube.