Jane Erye ~ 1847 was not a fun place to live

Before we get going, it’s a period romance. I don’t know about you, but these Pride and Prejudice like movies bore the stuff out of me. I can’t relate to the piousness, the presumed value these egotistical men and women place upon themselves, and what they believe to be racy and daring… well… I can’t relate. That being said, in order to stay unbiased, I enlisted the aid of my wife, who reads a lot of romances, to keep me in line. This movie is based on a book written in 1847, so I wasn’t expecting much.

Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska) is a governess, which is what they called tutors back in those days. I wouldn’t say she was pretty, but then again, I don’t go for the whole Puritan look. The movie opens with her running away from a large house, no apparent direction, getting battered around a bit by the elements and stumbling upon the house of St John Rivers (Jamie Bell) and his two sisters.

Rivers takes her in, gives her food and shelter, and eventually sets her up as a school teacher in the local poverty stricken town. From here we, flashback to Jane’s crappy childhood. She was the ward of a lady who hated her, she was picked on, head strong, and didn’t act as a “lady” should for the time, and sent off to a boarding school where her life got worse. She finally grows up and gets to leave taking on the position of governess for Edward Rochester’s (Michael Fassbender) French speaking daughter.

Rochester is pretty much a jerk to Jane and everyone, whenever he’s in town. As the trailer says, Rochester and Jane fall in love. The troubled kind of love typical in most romances. She is forced to work for the guy in some way. He’s a jerk, she’s too bold for her own good. He flirts. She flirts. He does something stupid usually involving another woman. She bitches him out. He kisses her. They profess their love. Something happens throwing them apart. They find each other. Ta da!

There are some weird twists in their story. Not as weird as in the book, but weird enough to make the regular person, like me, say “that is messed up.” I didn’t like the movie, but will tell people how messed up it was. My wife was also not a fan, though some scenes did catch her from time to time. If you’re into period romances… more power to ya… pick it up. If you don’t care for them, but you want to just know how messed up it was, drop me a line.