Not that this always works to their advantage…the extra screen time for Rochester simply serves to hammer in the point that he’s a bitter, selfish jerk. Timothy Dalton does an amazing job with the role, though; he looked, sounded and acted just as I always imagined Rochester did when I first read the novel. (Some might argue that Dalton was too good-looking for the role, but I always rather suspected that Rochester must have been better looking than Jane Eyre gave him credit, simply because why else would a teenage girl be so hot for him?)
Zelah Clarke is the actress playing the title character, and I’m not sure what I think of her. She’s too old, *much* too old for the role, and that does bother me. But on the other hand, her face has that plain but somewhat ethereal quality that I expect in the character. So it’s a toss-up, I guess.
Funny, I thought I’d have a lot to say about this. I guess that after dedicating 5+ hours to watching it, I ought to have something to say beyond, “It’s a good, solid telling of the story”. But I don’t. Oh well.
