Review: Jane Eyre

It's been quite a few years since I read Jane Eyre, which I thought would be a good thing - the story isn't that fresh in my mind and I wasn't going to sit there picking minor faults with the adaptation. In all fairness, there's not much leeway with a story like Jane Eyre, and they were very loyal to my memory of the book. Interestingly, the majority of the story was told in flashback, which - whilst being quite an interesting technique - for me, lost some of the tension that reading the book had. The script was pretty good - nothing special but nothing atrocious - and visually the film was quite beautiful; I'm not sure which stately home they used to Thornfield, but it was a cracking choice, and the costumes (minus a straw hat here and a Little Bo Peep bridal gown there) were good. Some very odd choices were made with the hair...I'm assuming they were trying to make Mia Wasikowska less attractive by giving her an appalling wig with an overly-intricate bun and stupidly curtain-ish bangs. It still didn't make her look plain - just slightly odd.

So on most counts, this adaptation of Jane Eyre was fine. My standard groan that Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester are supposed to be unattractive was founded - at one point Rochester asks Jane if he finds her handsome, to which she replies, "No, sir," - at which most women would reply, "WHY?!?!" But, handsomeness aside, Michael Fassbender was a very convincing Rochester - charmingly rude, broody and forceful, he turned in a good - if not a great - performance. Mia Wasikowska, however, less so. Her performance was much better than in Alice In Wonderland, but I think it's fair to say that isn't saying much. She's clearly attended the Kristen Stewart school of acting, where one facial expression is deemed adequate for every possible emotion. When St John Rivers tells her she looks miserable, my friend whispered, "How can he tell?" There was also a combined flaw of slow-script meeting Wasikowska's going for what might have been naivety, that ended up making Jane look just plain stupid on a couple of occasions.

So, all in all, it was just alright. Nothing to offend, nothing to amaze. In my eyes, the BBC's adaptation of Jane Eyre is considerably superior, despite being five years older.

Basic summary: an averagely intriguing gothic tale of romance and secrets, with nothing to blow you away but perhaps worth a quiet, mindless evening in.

Rating: * * (average)