UNBOUND

First the good news – as part of the Glen Eira Storytelling festival, the opening night of the new film version of this classic novel featured cocktails and choc tops. This in no way influenced my opinion of the quality of the film.

The film started about three quarters of the way through the book, on the wild moors of Emily’s Wuthering Heights rather than the more sheltered world of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.  In this case the film went north, following the book. Elemental and swirling, with heightened emotions and high drama which contrasted with the slow build up of the relationship between Rochester and the Governess. The scenery and settings were beautifully cinematic; the wild outdoors and the civilized drawing rooms, passion versus convention. I didn’t fall in love with Rochester but I did understand him and Jane was a suitably old soul in a young body. The film left out some of my favourite lines from the book but preserved enough of the original dialogue to make it a good echo. There were a couple of invented scenes but they were in the spirit of the novel and underlined the themes without being heavy handed.

Everything had to be compressed to fit into the two hour format, but I thought it was a happy abbreviation with loaded looks instead of long speeches, and subtle hints about how much time had passed. I was busy reading between the visual lines.

I wonder if you would understand what was happening if you hadn’t read the book?