By Torsha

Name: Torsha Chattopadhyay
Roll No.: 22ENG0646
Course: BA (Hons.) English
Semester: III
Paper: Victorian Literature

FILM: Jane Eyre
PRODUCER: Greg Brenman
YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 1997
GENRE: Haunting Romantic Drama
LANGUAGE: English
CAST: Samantha Morton (Jane), Laura Harling (Young Jane), Ciaran Hinds (Mr. Rochester), Timia Berthone (Adele).
REVIEW: Though not a gothic novel, Jane Eyre makes use of many gothic elements of the eighteenth century which the movie adaptation with the same name by Robert Young also makes use of, like the scene of the first meeting between Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre, with Mr. Rochester appearing from between the mist. Not just the mist or dark forest, but the sudden laughers and people stumping through the hallways also add to the gothic element to the movie as well as the novel.
The movie begins with the tragic life of young Jane Eyre where she was ill-treated by her aunt. The movie goes on to show the childhood of Jane and her losing her best friend which also played an important role in shaping her character. The movie rolls on to showing her moving to Thornfield hall as a governess to Adele, her meeting Mr. Rochester, the two falling in love. With The story flowing beautifully in the foreground, there remained a dark secret that always threatened to uncloak itself but Mr. Rochester tried his best to keep it hidden. But during the marriage ceremony of Jane and Mr. Rochester, the secret was finally revealed and Mr. Rochester turned out to be a married man. Though married to a mentally unstable lady, but Mr. Rochester being already married made Jane leave Mr. Rochester and Thornfield Hall. Samantha did a phenomenal job in portraying the feeling of betrayal and hurt, leaving thornfield and her love behind and rushing back to Mr. Rochester after realizing that with even with the passage of time, she could not stop loving Mr. Rochester.
Though a great film with cinematic representations and close relation to the actual novel, it was somewhere felt that in order to portray the romantic element more, the scene of Jane losing her friend went by in a haze though it was one of the big factors that shaped her future. Jane losing her friend and the emotions that a young neglected child could have gone through could have been thrown light on but instead the romantic side of the story was focused on more instead. Overall it was a pretty modest adaptation of the novel which surely gives an idea of the story to the viewers. With entertainment in mind and gaining a rough idea about Charlotte Bronte in mind, the film was a decent watch. More focus on some of the events other than the romance could have offered an even better result but in general I personally felt it to be a 3.5/5 rated movie.