Sonic Box

I don’t want to sound like an annoying little prat, but seriously how can people say that the adaptation of Jane Eyre in the bbc version is faithful to the original and is telling the story straight? Or that it shows new hues to the story. Or that (and I’m sorry to say so) Toby Stephens delivered a brilliant interpretation of Rochester. How on earth? He has the right features but his changes are too abrupt and sort of flat, you can’t really perceive the inner turmoil that is constantly agitating Rochester. And this is made more evident than ever in the final part where he’s supposed to look like a wretch, grieving, subdued and yet still striving, not to mention his appearance: where are the thick and messy dark locks gone? where’s the wild black mane fled? Apart from a scar there’s nothing different, neither outside or outside, made exception for very few moments. Plus the bandage on his hand is ridiculous, his hand was supposed to be severed, so if it’s not going to be showed, just don’t try to substitue it with a bandage, it makes no sense at all. I mean after a year why would he still be wearing a bandage? 

Most of all I hated the dialogues, lots of them were just bloody wrong and out of place. I’ll just take into account that section of the story when Rochester finally confesses his love and desire to marry Jane and she clames herself as his equal(as she is). That dialogue is in the book one of the most heart-felt and striking ever written, it is poetic and passionate, it is in short a rare gem. Nothing of this is to be seen in this adaptation, the most important bits are cut or very badly changed so that in the end all the magic is destroyed. Now what about all the kissing? Yes one should say: “hey that was fanservice and veeery welcome too”. But what I see is that since lots of it wasn’t originally in the book, it just stripped the scenes of their intensity and meaning. Jane Eyre is not just a mere love story, love is important but can’t be the only focus, there are a number of other relevant topics involved.

Rant ended, you can dismiss all this as heretical rubbish if you want

Edit: Ok Toby Stephens was very good, I just couldn’t cope with his smiles, for some reason they seemed to me out of place. I can see his frowns are really Rochie-like and there’s times I don’t fail to perceive how Rochester is quite changing in his behaviour to Jane, besides his being tormented. I fear the thing is I feel a huge gap between the happy moments Rochester has and his inner struggling, his irritation towards his life. Rochester has a very peculiar way of smiling in the book, a smile that’s often shadowed by other thoughts and only momentarily matches his heart, since his mind is constantly haunted by very heavy memories and facts. This continuous turmoil he shows, is what makes Rochester a thorough human being, a real person, it is what makes him understandable to us, we can keep track of his emotional logic. And I missed this in that adaptation.