I finally watched this movie last month and thought it powerful, faithful, and way too short. How I wish these actors, this set, this director, this production had yielded a mini-series instead of a 2-hour movie that was really more of an outline of the story than a telling of it.
I felt that the script popped from one key episode to the next in the Jane Eyre story outline, but there wasn't time to explore the subtleties of the story or characters. I actually don't think anyone who didn't know the story could follow what was going on. It seems like it should've been called "Scenes from Jane Eyre" rather than "Jane Eyre."
That said, I really liked the movie. I thought Mia Wasikowska was perfectly cast as Jane. The right combination of quiet determination and passion, moral uprightness and self awareness and depth of feeling. Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester was also perfect in my eyes--attractive but definitely not in a conventional way. Gruff, simmering, selfish, manipulative, passionate.
Judi Dench was marvelous as Mrs. Fairfax. I was actually a bit concerned about her in this role. I didn't much care for her as Lady Catherine in P&P from a few years ago, but she played Mrs. Fairfax so well--the faithful servant who knows much and especially how to keep her own counsel, married to the class system, but still compassionate with regards to Jane's predicament.
I never imagined Thornfield as a castle and that's how it appears in the movie, but the interiors were consistent with the world of the novel, and I especially loved the landscape shots.
