Jane Eyre

[plumtreeblossom]

While the rest of my writing class went to see Black Swan yesterday (which I've already seen and thought was an epic tardfest), I got to see Jane Eyre instead.

Although it was visually exquisite and overall rich with outstanding performances, the first half of the film scrambles the narrative so completely that unless you are intimately familiar with the novel (which I am, fortunately) you will have no flipping idea what's going on. It seemed as if they broke the story into 10-minute vignettes and put them on random shuffle, which destroyed any dramatic tension or background. This cleared up in the second half, and the film moved forward in a more or less chronological narrative, but it starts out upside down and inside out.

If you've read the novel and remember it, you'll be fine if you see the movie. If you haven't, at least read the Spark Notes all the way through before going so you'll recognize the out-of-sequence scenes as the randomly roll out.

Comments

[mizarchivist]

Well, that sucks. :/
I'd been hoping it would be a good rendition. I'm passingly familiar with the story so I suspect that I'd be most put out.
Huh. I can tell I was just watching Emma on the telly. :)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It's worth seeing for the fine performances and the beautiful rural heath scenes, but if you go, do brush up on the storyline or you'll be hopelessly lost. It's one of my favorite novels ever, so I was able to make sense of the scrambled first half, but I was wondering how many people in the very full theater could do the same after paying the same money I did.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Have you read Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair?