Plot Outline:

Small, plain and poor, Jane Eyre comes to Thornfield Hall as governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester. Denied love all her life, Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent, vibrant, energetic Mr. Rochester, a man twice her age. But just when Mr. Rochester seems to be returning the attention, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingram and her party to stay at his estate. Meanwhile, the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all their chances for happiness. Source

The film adaptation of Jane Eyre (from Charlotte Brontë's greatest novel) is a wonderfully gothic journey into the dark side of love. I'm a sucker for a good love story but a Victorian Gothic love story is more than I could've hoped for. This film features understated and atmospheric performances by Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles (one of the greatest directors and an excellent actor). Jane's childhood is heartbreaking and upon meeting Welles as Mr. Rochester we realize that class can't separate intertwined souls.

The story has some similarities to Wuthering Heights, another incredible novel and screen adaptation, but the storyline is less tragic and more hopeful. A significant part of the film are the childhood sequences which are both sorrowful and dreamy. Each "chapter" of the film has a reminder of the literary work with pages being turned and direct quotes before transitioning into the drama. Although this wasn't an official Orson Welles directed film it has his artistic essence all over it probably making it better than it probably would've been. This was filmed during Welles' peak directing and acting years in the mid 1940's.

On a side note I've always been a Brontë person rather than a Jane Austen one. If you love the Brontës and Victorian Gothic then check out this wonderful film.

"Are you anything akin to me, do you think, Jane?"
I could risk no sort of answer by this time; my heart was still.
"Because," he said, "I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you — especially when you are near to me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land, come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly."
Mr. Rochester and Jane (Ch. 23)

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