Jane Eyre

Cary Joji Fukunaga starts at the end: the film opens with Jane in tears on the moors, and reaches Lowood and her months at Thornfield only through flashbacks while she recovers at Moor House. Moira Buffini’s script reached the 2008 Brit List, the industry roll of the best unproduced British screenplays. The production followed the same gothic pull, the team deliberately bringing the book’s eerie side forward. Mia Wasikowska was cast partly for being close to the age the novel gives Jane, where most earlier versions used older actresses. About 60 houses were seen for Thornfield before Haddon Hall was picked, largely because it had escaped redecoration; the 2006 television series used it too. The costume team moved the setting from the late 1830s to 1843 on purpose, leaving a few characters in older fashions. On the second day, shooting the rain sequence, Wasikowska came close to hypothermia. Michael O’Connor’s costumes were nominated at the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs; The Artist won both. The American release opened on 4 screens, averaging 45,721 dollars each. A good fit if you know the novel and are coming for Thornfield’s darkness and Wasikowska’s held-back playing rather than for the plot. Not for viewers who want the Lowood and Rivers chapters at the length the book gives them; the flashback frame compresses both.