Jane Eyre
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
- drama
- romance
The story
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
What it’s like
Cold, muted candlelight and grey winter daylight give this film its feeling: long interiors lit by window light and flickering lamps, drafty stone halls, and a palette of moss greens, bruised blues and sooty browns. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga favours patient, handheld-close framing that stays with faces, and the moors arrive as wide, windswept emptiness under heavy skies, with snow and rain carrying much of the weather. The score is sparse and string-led, often dropping into near silence so that the clock, the wind and the crackle of a fire are what you hear. Pacing is deliberate and sometimes slow, with long stretches of quiet conversation and lingering looks rather than set-piece action. The emotional register is restrained and yearning, a young woman's quiet resolve against a hard childhood and a guarded, difficult love, and its arc is an orphan slowly learning to trust her own judgment. Intensity is low: there is no gore, and the menace is psychological and gothic, with a few startling moments of fire and a sharp outburst or two. Suited to a rainy afternoon or a quiet evening alone, it is for viewers who want romance and period atmosphere with an unhurried, melancholy mood.
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