Jane Eyre

Another adaptation of Jane Eyre isn't the most original idea for a film, and this one mainly rises above the pack due to the rich, finely honed performances of its leads, Mia Wasikowska as the resilient Jane and the redoubtable Michael Fassbender as the flawed Rochester. That's not to say that this version of the classic Charlotte Brontë story is devoid of other pleasures. Screenwriter Moira Buffini cannily alters the structure of the renowned British tale by putting Jane's escape from Rochester's estate and her rescue by St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell) and his sisters at the beginning, then telling the bulk of the story in flashback. This gives us a clear understanding of the choice Jane faces at the movie's dénouement. Director Cary Fukunaga, meanwhile, shoots his dreary, spooky locations with aplomb, often using handheld camerawork in an effort to lend the tale more intimacy and immediacy. It works, to a point, but the film is still not that far removed from earlier versions of the familiar story. This adaptation's great strengths are Wasikowska's quiet, proud determination in the face of a life of abuse and the depth of passion bubbling beneath it, and in Fassbender's brooding, damaged gruffness and the intelligence and longing evident in his Rochester.