The madwoman in the attic

Jane Eyre

Crit

Just finished reading the novel--for the first time in my long book-reading life--this week, so I have it as fresh in mind as possible, and am in good position to judge the filmmakers' decisions in squeezing a fat Victorian novel into 2 hours. Give director Cary Fukunaga an A+ on capturing the tone of Charlotte Brontë's insistently intellectual effusion of emotion. Also very nearly perfect is Mia Long-Polish-Surname as Jane: regular readers (both of them) know that I give high marks for wordless acting, and although Jane is as verbal as a good Victorian protagonist must be, Fukunaga exploits Wasikowska's brilliance in making her face a seemingly unchanging mask that nonetheless conveys precisely what she's thinking and--more to the point--feeling.

One narrative choice makes the sprawling material much more tamable: we begin with Jane's flight from Thornfield and collapse at the door of Moor House. Then we flash back to her childhood, her time at Lowood (which is, sadly, portrayed as unremittingly hellish, but I understand the need to elide the angelic Miss Temple--for that matter, the whole Lowood segment might well have been cut, but for the loss of Amelia Clarkson, a fine match for Wasikowska as young Jane), and thence to Thornfield and all that happens there. Or lots of it, anyway.

The hints of a presence upstairs are much condensed, as is the role of Blanche Ingram as the presumptive future Mrs. Rochester, and that's a shame, but the one really odd choice by the filmmakers is making Bertha, in her one brief appearance, not the haggard witch into which she is supposed to have descended in more than a decade of confinement but the ultrahot Valentina Cervi, who shows her insanity mainly by having unkempt (and really sexy) hair. OK, she does spit a fly at Jane--that's a nice crazy touch.

Haters of hackneyed narrative devices of 18th- and 19th-century novels will be pleased to see that the one huge coincidence of the novel is missing (though that has the effect of making Jane's economic gesture less arguably a product of her cool logic, and its beneficiaries' acceptance of it less believable), displeased to see the wildest metaphysical device present (though in a much muted form).

In all, a very faithful--and, more important, very good--adaptation of a justly loved literary work. But seriously, if you, like I a month ago, have never read the novel, do. And how'd I do, by the way, avoiding or at least finessing spoliers? I tried really hard.

Trailer

• The Conspirator--Huh! I've been watching Ken Burns's The Civil War again, so I'm particularly receptive to a drama about the treason trial of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright). Unfortunately, it stars James McAvoy, whom I still just don't get, as her unwilling defense attorney.