“Jane Eyre” Movie Trailer Review
2/26/2011 Posted by Admin
Movie Trailer Review
By our guest blogger, Joe Oliveto
Michael Fassbender is moving up in the world. After a brief but memorable performance in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” he scored a major role in “X-Men: First Class,” portraying the young Magneto. Now, like any handsome British actor, he’s taking the usual route and starring in an adaptation of a romantic Victorian novel. It had to happen sometime.
From the looks of the trailer, it appears that this film will be very visually impressive, with grey landscapes and dark interiors filmed gorgeously. The CGI smoke that appears early in the trailer doesn’t seem to mix well with the quality of the other images, though. Maybe it’s something that will be touched up when the final product is complete.
As far as overall tone goes, this looks like a fairly unique take on the “Jane Eyre” story; for anyone not familiar with the novel, it would be reasonable to assume that this was some sort of Gothic thriller, complete with ghosts and murder. To be fair, the melodramatic approach the trailer takes does spark the interest of the viewer. There have been plenty of sub-par TV adaptations of these types of novels (as well as a few quality ones here and there), and it’s nice to see that someone is taking this material and putting real care into presenting it attractively.
Whether the film will be any good remains to be seen, but with a skilled cast and striking visuals, the trailer has given us reason to believe this will be a strong adaptation.
View the trailer below. Thoughts?
February 26, 2011 at 11:37 PM
This statement was kind of amusing: "for anyone not familiar with the novel, it would be reasonable to assume that this was some sort of Gothic thriller". Seriously? Instead perhaps you would mean that would be those who were familiar with the maudlin prior movie versions. This is a novel by the sister of the author of Wuthering Heights, and they competed for who could have the first Gothic thriller in print. The book is the source for many gothic romance tropes, the orphaned girl, the mysterious madwoman in the attic, the wounded romantic male figure, the governess and forbidden romance. It looks to me like the first one that comes close to the wonderful melodrama of the novel with all its mad passions and despairs. It has hints of voodoo, besides the very Victorian child abuse and cruelty in the beginning chapters. Kind of reminds me of where the Republicans want to return our civilization. Love when it triumphs is flavored by grief and surrender. Very dark stuff, and it looks like the vision of the director is finally in sync to me.