ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090047
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Franco Zeffirelli's talent for the visual once again supersedes his dedication to story and character in "Jane Eyre," his film adaptation of the novel by Charlotte Bronte.
Luckily, his one foolish mistake is not enough to ruin this perfectly fine movie.
Starring William Hurt as Rochester and a young French actress named Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane, this movie will offend no one with its steady, competent and often loving attention to the fairy-tale story of a young girl who learns to expect cruelty from fate - but still retains a steadfast faith in goodness.
But in casting Gainsbourg in the title role, Zeffirelli seems to have let his penchant for a certain type of face (she looks a great deal like the novelist herself and Olivia Hussey, who was Zeffirelli's Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet") overwhelm his good sense.
It's not that Gainsbourg isn't a good actress. She's okay. It's just that her efforts to suppress her French accent add a woodenness to a performance that is already extremely subdued and limited in its range.
It works fine in the first third of the movie, when Jane is leaving Lowood School, the horrible charity institution where she has lived for 10 years, courtesy of her Aunt Reed (Fiona Shaw). And it's still okay when Jane is learning to find her way around the daunting Thornfield Hall and its master.
But as Jane awakes to the scent of freedom - even if it's just the liberty of having a job at 30 pounds a year and a room of her own - Gainsbourg exhibits no softening, no lightening. None of the heat or passion that young Jane (played by Anna Paquin - the little girl in "The Piano") showed at the Lowood School, when she faced down the headmaster.
But Hurt is excellent. Joan Plowright is wonderful as Mrs. Fairfax. And unquestionably, Zeffirelli knows how to assemble a beautiful picture.
It may not quite match the splendor and strength of last year's Austen-fest, but it's still better than many of the unlovely, unthinking alternatives.
*** (PG) for adult subject matter, a Miramax Films release showing at the Grandin Theatre, 120 minutes.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt star in Francoby CNBZeffirelli's "Jane Eyre." color. KEYWORDS: MOVIE REVIEW