Jane Eyre (1997)

The Timothy Dalton version has no equal, with lines directly from the novel.

The garden proposal scene is heartfelt, especially the "I want you to pass through life at my side, to be my second self and best earthly companion."

The Cirian Hinds version lacks this wording and impact. I agree with a previous poster: the kissing scene was awful.

Hinds' portrayal of Rochester reminds me of the way abusive husbands are in films -- brutal, loud, nasty, unlikeable. He shouts, he shouts, and he shouts. The scene near the end when Jane is refusing St. John Rivers' proposal seems hurried. Lacking is the mysterious exchange in the novel and in the BBC version. It reminded me of Michael Crawford's angry Phantom.

Hinds was so superb and so pathetic (as he should have been) as Michael Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge (what an outstanding version!) that I named my cat Henchard and I posted his will -- powerful, as written by Thomas Hardy.

Samantha Morton kept making faces throughout Jane Eyre, and I did not like her at all -- the actor, that is.

My thoughts are that the cast viewed all the other Jane Eyre films and decided: we shall be different. Even the voice inflection will be altered.

Owning just about every film version (I think one before the Welles-Fontaine version exists) and different copies of the novel, I

kept comparing and contrasting.

Ferndean was too palatial, and Mrs. Fairfax's appearance, too startling.

This ranks way, way down on my list.