Jane Eyre is a young woman of 1800’s England who is first given to a despicable school for an education but actually is beaten and winds up becoming a rich heiress.
Film making 22/25
Video 23/25
Audio 25/25
Bonus Features 10/25
Total 80/100
The Jane Eyre Blu-ray edition is the film based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte and published in 1847, the recent release of the movie is the newest adaptation of the popular novel. Jane Eyre is an interesting story with the main theme being a love story love with class distinctions as well.
Jane Eyre takes on several genres at the same time with a love story and that growing up in the beginning of the film seeing Jane deal with her early years in a boarding school. The times of England in the 1800’s not to mention the school which was more like an institution with its poor food, little heat and lack of decent clothing.
Jane sees her best friend die of consumption while she tolerates the abuse of the teachers and headmaster of the school. She leaves when she grows up, sixteen or so, to find a position as a governess to a moderately wealthy Mr. Rochester taking care of a charge of his from France.
A governess is a nanny who is charged with taking care of children and Jane does have a good education in that regard as well as being compassionate and caring. She takes her duties seriously but falls in love with Mr. Rochester on his occasional but infrequent visits to his country home where Jane is staying.
Classes and ranks of the time come into play often when Mr. Rochester tries to marry her but a secret previous marriage foils their chance at a wedding. Edward Rochester’s first wife is staying locked behind closed doors off a room of his bedroom because she is insane.
Edward does not want to send her to a sanitarium or other institution because he has seen what happens there and does love his wife. A few times in the film we see her episodes of escape when first a friend of Edward’s is attacked and another where Jane wakes to find Edwards bedroom on fire.
In the end Edward tries to marry Jane but is interrupted by his first wife’s father who just wants Edward’s money but eventually they do get together. Jane returns to Edward after spending some time with a cousin who she does not know at first is her cousin.
Jane returns to Edward’s estate only to find the place burned down, the head housekeeper tells her what happened starting with Edward’s first wife starting the place on fire. Jane seeks out Edward after hearing that he was seriously injured in the fire while rescuing the staff and also finding out his wife did kill herself in the fire.
Jane Eyre is a great movie and this release on Blu-ray and the new film edition is well worth a purchase for a great film adaptation of the classic novel. Video and audio are both great with video being clear and crisp while audio is almost perfect.
The video is crisp and clear but with many scenes from inside dark and dreary castles or ramshackle buildings indoor scenes look good in a dismal sort of way. Skin tones look great and even when Jane is looking rather down with fever they look amazing along with other colors and overall scenes from various seasons.
The video and the films variety of locations does give this movie a great chance to shine and it does almost make the perfect looking film. Audio is also very good, slightly better than video and about as good as your ever going to get with a drama/love story type movie.
Surround sound is quite noticeable in many scenes but does not overwhelm at all with that perfect mix of bass and rear speaker use along with the centered voice that works quite well. Audio is great and even the use of some mood music at times makes the film much more than its parts for an entertaining and surprisingly enjoyable film.
Bonus content for this film is also surprisingly lacking for a film that has been done and redone so many times from the original book. One thing I did expect for this film was at least some mention of what has come before and how this adaptation is different than all the others.
Bonus features include several really quick making of features and a longer deleted scenes but the only real worthwhile piece is the audio commentary by director Cary Fukunaga. The audio commentary goes into serious depth about tech aspects of filming which is a bright change of pace but overall the bonus content is lacking.
Jane Eyre is a great story and this adaptation is well worth a purchase for a movie collection, this is a great look at the classic novel.