Jane Eyre

There are remakes, and then there is Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre which has been adapted for film or television some twenty five times. Is there a round table discussion of new ways to make the remote yet grand mansion of Thornfield creepier, Jane more independent or Rochester more conflicted?

In director Cary Fukunaga's version, the cinematography is especially beautiful, with outdoor scenery imbued with grey, purple and gold seemingly borrowed from the landscape paintings of J.M.W. Turner. Mia Wasikowska plays Jane with elegant restraint, projecting the resilience and reserve of a heroine who has endured a lifetime of disappointment. The long shots of Jane walking alone in the moors are particularly poignant; she is a restless spirit who longs for freedom, possesses a strong moral compass, and is determined to live her life without hypocrisy. The path of the righteous is rife with solitude.