The movie is faithful to the storyline and themes of Brontë’s novel, which combined a compelling rags-to-riches tale with burning passions and smoldering secrets, spiked with pointed statements about morality, religion, forgiveness and the universal yearning to be part of a loving, caring family.

But even knowing how the story ends doesn’t distract from this version’s powerful depiction of a young woman making her way in an era dominated by men and divided by gaping chasms of gender and class.

But Wasikowska, who held her own against Mad Hatter Johnny Depp last year in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, gives an especially potent performance as the “older” Jane, running away when we meet her in the opening scene from something we don’t know about until much later, and into a future that will hinge on the “goodness of strangers.”Īcclaimed British actress Judi Dench takes a supporting role as Rochester’s housekeeper, the first adult in Jane’s life to treat her with any degree of respect, compassion or kindness.Īnyone familiar with the novel or any of the movie’s previous versions won’t be surprised by what awaits Jane at the end of her emotionally wrenching travails. Newcomer Amelia Clarkson, making her big-screen debut, is impressive as the younger version of the character, enduring a cruel guardian aunt and heartless schoolteachers. Jane, a British orphan, runs a gauntlet of childhood obstacles before her path finally leads her, at age 19, to a job for brooding Edward Fairfax Rochester (Michael Fassbender), whose handsome countryside manor is full of mystery, deceit and danger.

Jane eyre movie rating