THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605030738
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
SINCE ITS publication in 1847, ``Jane Eyre'' has never been out of print and is arguably the best-selling of the so-called ``classics.'' But does anyone need another movie version?
Maybe not, but if anyone could bring this Gothic romance back to the movie screen it would be Franco Zeffirelli. He cast Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in ``The Taming of the Shrew,'' scored a hit with his youthful ``Romeo and Juliet'' and made Mel Gibson ``Hamlet'' with Glenn Close as his mom - playing out the REAL fatal attraction.
Zeffirelli's decision to take on ``Jane Eyre'' is made doubly risky because the 1944 version is so well remembered. It had a brooding Orson Welles as Mr. Rochester, a glamourized Joan Fontaine in the title role and wonderful black and white photography.
But Zeffirelli has served up a thoroughly respectable and ``correct'' new edition. If anything, the new production is a little too correct. It sticks to the book, but it lacks the usual Zeffirelli flair.
The best thing about it is the vibrant presence of Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane Eyre. Gainsbourg has the longest and most elegant neck to appear on screen since Audrey Hepburn. She, unlike Fontaine, is an authentically plain Jane but one that has the backbone and the spunk to rise above her harsh setbacks.
William Hurt, an Oscar winner for ``Kiss of the Spider Woman,'' contributes another of his quirky performances as Mr. Rochester, the owner of the estate where Jane works as a governess. Hurt, however, lacks any semblance of fire. He's effective at suggesting a wounded past, but we wonder what Jane sees in him.
Anna Paquin, who won her Oscar for the similarly melodramatic ``The Piano,'' plays Jane as a child. She suggests a tomboyish feistiness that could grow into Gainsbourg's more demure independence.
We might not have really needed another version of Charlotte Bronte's novel but this is a worthy addition. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW ``Jane Eyre''
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Hurt, Joan Plowright, Anna
Paquin, Geraldine Chaplin, Elle Macpherson
Director: Franco Zeffirelli
MPAA rating: PG (abusive conditions for the children)
Mal's rating: Three stars
Location: Starting Friday at the Naro in Norfolk
by CNB