Loved the Movie . . .

Certain books are incredibly difficult to turn into movies. Readers love the characters so fiercely, and are so protective of them, that no screen depiction could possibly do justice to the way we see and hear the characters in our mind. “Jane Eyre” is such a book. Yet it’s been filmed perhaps more often than any other novel — 22 times at least. Perhaps it’s because filmmakers are passionate about the plain mousy Jane, the doomed and tormented Mr. Rochester, and the love that nearly consumes them, that they just can’t let them alone. The new film starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender is faithful in word, in spirit and in the visual sweep: the stormy moors, the great gloomy house, the finery worn by the rich and the plain frocks by the poor, even, to use of one Charlotte Brontë’s favorite words, the physiognomy of the characters all seem drawn right from the page. Orphaned in infancy, Jane was sent to live with relatives who hated her and treated her cruelly. When she was sent to the dank Lowood School for Girls, things only got worse. The only love she felt was for her schoolmate Helen, but that did not last. Helen died of typhus, leaving Jane alone. At 18, knowing her low place in the world but strengthened by her trials, she goes to work at Thornfield Hall, that famously gloomy stone pile (convincingly played by Haddon Hall, seen often in Brontë and Austen adaptations) as the governess to another orphan, Adele, the ward of Thornfield’s master, Mr. Rochester. Haughty master and salaried dependent slowly fall in love, of course, but there is a problem: Those pesky cackles and thumps emanating from the attic. Mia Wasikowska is terrific: grave and watchful as the “poor, obscure, plain, and little” adult Jane. But is there any actor who can play Mr. Rochester? Brontë goes to great pains to describe him as homely: stern-faced, heavy-browed, chest almost too broad for his height, even Vulcan-like. And then there are his defining characteristics such as wild mood swings, acerbic wit and of course his mysterious burden. Michael Fassbender is a little too young, Continued from page 7too slight. Yet he’s a good match for Wasikowska. There’s chemistry there. The connection between these two characters is the paradigm of romantic love. Different in birth and fortune, they complete and perfect each other emotionally, intellectually, spiritually and (equally important in Brontë’s world) morally. But to depict their relationship as Brontë did would be difficult today. She uses words like “wild,” “savage” and “desperate” to describe Rochester’s need for Jane, and she in turn wants to “serve” and “obey” him. We’d want to diagnose each of them and their relationship with our own words like “dysfunctional” or “enabling.” And perhaps for that reason the intensity is dialed down. The intellectual and emotional connection is there, but the neediness is not, and so, perhaps inevitably, the movie never comes close to the dizzying intensity of the book. The stunningly photographed scenery is the other star of the movie. Everything looks covered with algae, the forbidding stone walls and roughhewn rooms of Thornfield, its heathered gardens, the desolate windswept moors soaked by flashing thunderstorms. Many scenes are lit only by candles and firelight and the darkness seems to swallow the actors whole. It’s just right for this dark and ghostly tale. After seeing the movie I raced home and reread the novel, and I am grateful for it. It’s been a while and I remember again why I love it so. If the film can’t quite get at the heart of what makes Jane Eyre so alluring, it’s still a wonderful effort, a treat for the eye and a desperately romantic love story. “Jane Eyre” is rated PG-13 for a nude image and brief violent content. It is at The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, and elsewhere.