Jane Eyre (1996)Anna plays young Jane Eyre in this gothic romance. Anna is lovely as herself, but the role mostly of interest for Anna's fans only. Beyond the beginning with Anna, the movie is a fair adaptation of the story.
Anna plays young Jane Eyre in the first 25 minutes of this classic of
gothic romance. If you don't know Anna yet, there may not be that much to
see here; go see The
Piano first and return then. Now that you know how wonderful Anna is,
you'll be delighted to hear she's very much herself in Jane Eyre. There is
the uniquely birdish, loose way she moves her head, even shades of the
uppity attitude she had in The Piano. That's plenty for the money for me.
Don't expect wonders on the acting front however. And avoid the PAL version
of the DVD, its picture quality is substandard.
With that out of the way, a few words about the actual movie. Jane is an
orphan, raised by her unloving aunt. The movie starts from cold and harsh
Mr. Brocklehurst from Lowood's charity school arriving to take Jane with
him to the school, where Jane is to live for several years. When 18, she
moves to Thornfield Manor to work as a governess, a teacher for a young
girl Adele.
 What follows is so well characterised by Roger
Ebert: "The covers give the game away: In the foreground, a wide-eyed
heroine, hair flying, bodice torn, flees from a forbidding Gothic manor. In
the manor, a light shines in one window, high in a tower. In the
background, a dark, sinister man glowers enigmatically." I started watching
the movie purely because of Anna, but was pleasantly surprised, and watched
all of it with fair interest. That doesn't happen often.
I'm giving a fairly high actress score of 3.7. Much of that is simply due
to Anna being herself.
This is a mini-review. We mostly write full reviews only for the best or most inspiring movies. You're welcome to submit better or new reviews. |
Jane Eyre (1996) |
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