Though I am a firm believer in reading the book before watching the film, Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” is a bit long for some light summer reading.
Lucky enough for us lazy readers, The Lyric will be showing the two hour cinematic production until 9:30 p.m. on May 26. Having no expectations for the film, and being unfamiliar with her written work, I found the film to be slow going and disconnected.
In the first 30 minutes the director, Cary Fukunaga, attempted to set up the plot, but the story line was too vague to gain a real sense of Jane as a character.
As the supposed love story went on, the lack of settling development made it difficult to truly understand and be a part of the real tragedy that the characters were portraying. Fukunaga’s flashback effects were not at all well-defined, making it difficult for the audience to tell where in Jane’s life the current scene was actually happening. To much disappointment, the film does not hold up to the incredible reputation of the classic novel. Although it may not be due to ill-acting, as lead actress Mia Woksikowska did a phenomenal job with her individual role, the true downfall is the film’s lack of development with characters and plot.
I had hoped to feel the real desire and tragedy that are usually promised from such traditional literature, but the cinematic production fell short,
giving only glimpses of a dreary setting with little climax in the sense of character relationships and plot.
The film certainly wasn’t one that I will be purchasing when it comes out on DVD, but if its playing on TV, it was entertaining enough to watch in between channel surfing and commercials.
A version of this article appeared in the May 26 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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"incredible reputation of the classic novel" that you admitted to have never read?
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I guess you truly didn't read the book, but ironically, your description of the movie (if the movie truly is this way) is an accurate description of the book. ... "the story line was too vague", ... "the lack of settling development made it difficult to truly understand", ... "Only glimpses of a dreary setting with little climax". that right there is what I would write if I were on the new york times review of this book. I read it in 12th grade and burned the book after reading it. As a piece of literature it is, as a work of art it is s**t.
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"that right there is what I would write if I were on the new york times review"
Are you in college? Really? I don't believe you read the book, or even burned it. Thanks for playing, sport.
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i absolutely did and i have pictures to prove it
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