By Deepanshu Yadav

Name- Deepanshu Yadav
Roll No. - 22ENG0606
Course- B.A. English Hons.
Year- 2nd (3rd semester)
Paper- Victorian Literature

Film Review-Jane Eyre (1997)
The 1997 film adaptation of Jane Eyre stars Ciaran Hinds as Mr. Rochester and the young Samantha Morton as Jane. It was a British Television Film that was first broadcast on ITV. It was directed by Robert Young and was produced by Greg Brenman.
There have been many film adaptations of the novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, out of which this is one of them. The film isn’t the exact replica of the novel but in the span of one hour and forty eight minutes, the audience is easily able to understand the plot of the film. Like other adaptations this film too misses out on many events that come across, though had a small part but still connects the story, these scenes were usually narrated by Jane herself and were not shown as a part of the film. Because of this the connection that the audience build and the relationship that took hundreds of pages to build up creates a rushed feeling where the director wants to display every single event, but in such a hurry and in such short time period, everything is not captured in the same sense as the novel and so the essence of the story comes out to be a bit different in the film. But to mould such excellent piece of English Literature into a visual representation that too in such time limit is a great achievement in itself. Thus there is much to miss and hate but eventually there is much to appreciate too.
Now if we talk about the characters then Ciaran Hinds approach to Mr. Rochester was one of the best. His character feels like a Byronic Hero as he is dark and moody, mysterious, emotional, arrogant but also sexually intense and is also troubled because of the secret of his first marriage. A perfect mix of all these characteristics were very finely carried out by Ciaran. His character is irreplaceable.
As for Samantha who plays as the protagonist Jane Eyre, what she did was remarkable as well. Samantha was only about nineteen or twenty during the making of the film and so she was at the right age to portray as the youthful Jane Eyre with her beauty and piercing blue eyes. But apart from her beauty, her character growth is not up to the mark. Her childhood is shown for about 10-15 minutes in the film, showing the audience her life in the orphanage and school, and then suddenly she is leaving for Thornfield as a governess where she falls in love with Mr. Rochester within just 4-5 encounters with him during her stay. As an actress Samantha did very well but as for the character, the director could make some improvements and not just rush the emotions of love and relationship.
Apart from these two main characters, the other characters that were there, like, Mrs Fairfax and Adele along with Blanche Ingram, were quite appreciable. With this the film also captures the gothic atmosphere of the novel, along with haunting score by Richard Harvey. The attention to detail of the period setting, costumes and locations adds to the authenticity of the adaptation. The costumes were very well selected like the gowns and dresses of the 1830-1840s to bring more depth to the characters.
All in all the film adaptation of Jane Eyre, had its focus on Jane Eyre as the character but was more or less a very strong and impactful lover story though it didn’t showcase any strong sexual content, foul or adult language or even graphic violence as such. The story as a core can have a great influence to the right audience.