Jane Eyre. - movie reviews

National Review, June 17, 1996 by John Simon

A far, far cry from this is the remake of Jane Eyre, directed by Franco Zeffirelli from his and Hugh Whitemore's screenplay. Lest memory play tricks on you, let me say that the old Hollywood, Orson Welles - Joan Fontaine version was terrible, too, but this one, made in England with mostly English actors, should have been better. It has a trump card in Charlotte Gainsbourg (the daughter of the singer Serge Gainsbourg and the actress Jane Birkin), known mostly from French films, but here speaking impeccable British English, looking aptly like the other, authorial Charlotte, and acting with touching simplicity and quiet conviction. There are fine performances also by Joan Plowright, as the kindly housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax; Anna Paquin (from The Piano), as young Jane; Leanne Rowe, as her tragic chum; and one or two others. Lovely scenery and David Watkin's customary superb cinematography supply pleasing trimmings.

But Zeffirelli's direction is, as usual, flabby, and there is one performance abysmal enough to sink a much better movie: William Hurt's Rochester. Totally unable to come up with a plausible accent, affecting a torpidly whiny delivery, and expressing little beyond smug stupidity, Hurt burns a cigarette hole into every scene of film he appears in.