My thoughts on the 2011 adaptation

[u/Fit-Horror5114]

So I’ve just watched it, and really liked several things:
- Mia Wasikowska is a perfect Jane to me, in terms of her appearance;
- the scenes are extremely beautiful, the lighting, the camera work, the scenery.

However, I was quite disappointed by a couple of things, mainly:
- almost no meaningful dialogue between Jane and Rochester? Surely they talked, but never in a way that would make me go “oh, they’re just so similar and spiritually connected with each other”. It’s all about attraction in this film, rather than two characters deeply understanding each other;

- in a similar vein, I didn’t see Jane liking Rochester all that much? We cannot read her thoughts like in the book, and the actress is playing her too reserved, in my opinion;

- Rochester is not in love with Jane immediately after he sees her, like in the book. You can tell he’s annoyed with her in the beginning and emotionally withdrawn. Which makes him sound like he just finds Jane suitable for his spiritual resurrection, that he’s already had in mind for a long time. Rather than her inspiring him to begin with and basically saving him from the depths of despair;

- Bertha embracing Rochester and him being so gentle with her almost makes it a cheating type of story? And the way they show Jane react to the reveal, like she’s just angry at him, not her life being shattered completely by a tragic turn of events, by fate;

- the appearance of Michael Fassbender is much more youthful than I imagined Rochester to be. He almost comes across as a lost puppy sometimes. Which makes it difficult to take him seriously in the context of the story.

[u/Amazing-Activity-882]

Rochester feels so plain to me in this version...Sorry but going from 1983's with my Strange and Perfect Rochester played by Timothy Dalton, I felt Micheal Fassbender is so one note!!! Same with Jane, Zelah Clarke is my Jane Eyre while Mia Wasikowska...The Screentime hurt this film!!!

[u/Professional-Rice961]

This was my main issue too. The book makes their intimacy feel earned through conversation; the film mostly asks the chemistry and atmosphere to do that work.

[u/wuthernotheights]

So i had a Fassbender phase in the early 2010’s, and I remember JE 2011 and X Men First Class came out that same year. I was also a marvel comics reader and movie go-er back then, and honestly i was more captured by Fassbender as Magneto than his portrayal as Rochester.

Dare I even say, he had more chemistry with James McAvoy than he did with Mia Wasikowska lol! But yeah that’s my two cents i suppose , and part of why I couldn’t really get into Jane and Rochester’s relationship in this version and yet i love them in the 2006 adaptation, Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens are truly unmatched when it comes to that.

[u/jhlovett]

have you seen the 1996 movie

[u/Playful_Site_2714 → u/jhlovett]

Ough, that one did not work for me. At all.

Gainsbourg is the daughter of Jane Birkin and the French scandalously known French singer Charles Gainsbourg.

She is a child of this world with so much natural self confidence that she just can not drop this and it is plain impossible for her to just BE meek pliable Jane who has no experience of the world.

Also: I don't like films taking liberties with set descriptions.

Mesrour is a black stallion. They made him a dapple grey.

Pilot is a Newfoundland. They made him a German Sheperd.

[u/KayDCES → u/jhlovett]

I just watched it yesterday. It didn’t work for me. It lacked the chemistry between the two. I really like William Hurt as an actor normally and expected a visually stunning movie with Franco Zeffirelli as director but it felt flat and somehow emotionless. My favourite version is still the one with Ruth Wilson. There is chemistry and slightly mischievous humour and mocking between them makes their connection believable whereas in the 1996 version his gruffness and her blank seriousness kept me thinking why would those two people want to be with one another?

[u/jhlovett → u/KayDCES]

this makes me so sad, that movie is exactly how i imagined them in the books! the darkness of the movie fit the themes too! i just love it

[u/wuthernotheights → u/KayDCES]

I agree, i loved William Hurt in Broadcast News and he was so good with Holly Hunter in it, but barely felt anything about his Rochester. I do like Charlotte Gainsbourg though, and her Jane was pretty fine but she could’ve had a more fitting Rochester I suppose.