Jane Eyre

JANE EYRE - DVD Movie

Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet) and screenwriter Hugh Whitemore strip away a bit of the familiar romanticism of Charlotte Brontë's novel and come up with a more plain but somehow quite interesting film adaptation. Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Cement Garden) makes for an oddly appealing but deliberately unlovely version of Jane (previous actresses have included Susannah York and Joan Fontaine), and William Hurt is excellent as an equally revised Rochester, brusque and self-involved but not the totem of torment and charisma we've seen before. The story clings to the usual chapters in the book, but with Zeffirelli shaping the principal characters to reflect their cautious perceptions of one another--rather than to a Hollywood notion of grand passion--the film has a wonderful accessibility. Great support from Joan Plowright, Billie Whitelaw, Anna Paquin, and the rest of the cast. --Tom Keogh