Wide Sargasso Sea (2006)

"Beautifully acted" -- The Independent (U.K.)

As imagined by Jean Rhys, the villainous madwoman in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre becomes an innocent, born into two cultures but belonging to none.

The exotic Caribbean confounds young Englishman Edward Rochester when he arrives in 1830s Jamaica to pursue his fortune. Nevertheless, he finds nothing to fear in beautiful Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway. She eagerly succumbs to his courtship, entrusting him with her dowry and her destiny. In the intoxicating surroundings of their honeymoon house, ecstatic lust turns to suspicion and betrayal as her world and his disastrously collide.

In this passionate and heartbreaking love story, the shadowy character created by one brilliant novelist becomes fully realized in the hands of another. Rafe Spall (The Chatterley Affair) and Rebecca Hall (The Prestige) star in a fresh adaptation that captures all the sensuality, suspense, and nuance of Rhys’s masterpiece.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE biography of Jean Rhys, SDH subtitles, and cast filmographies.

STRANGE

This prequel is going to disappoint most Jane Eyre devotees. It is much more like a badly written romantic novel than a classic. If you must see it, check it out from your local library. I'm glad I did that rather than buy it as I found it to have more sex than substance and thought it overall....VERY STRANGE and not very entertaining. October 14, 2008

Don't Sea

I was so interested in a Jane Eyre "pre-quill" with hopes it that would really flesh out Mr. Rochester's early attraction to his Island wife. While the setting was lush, Mr. Rochester remained unlikeable, the barefoot Islanders sneaking in and out were randomly weird/ominous/friendly/........nothing - not even the steamy scenes - really put it all together. Big wide disappointment. August 28, 2008

The movie adaptation of a novel written by Jean Rhys

Wide Sargasso Sea is the movie adaptation of a novel written by Jean Rhys, as a deliberate prequel to Charlotte Bronte's classic tale "Jane Eyre". In the story, Rhys imagined how Mr. Rochester from "Jane Eyre" met and married his first wife, and how she became a madwoman in the attic. Set in early 1800s Jamaica, the young Englishman Edward Rochester (Rafe Spall) captivates the beautiful Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway (Rebecca Hall); yet the passionate lust of the newlyweds quickly gives way to suspicion, fear and betrayal. Originally aired in the United Kingdom, Wide Sargasso Sea is now available to American audiences on DVD with special features including a biography of Jean Rhys and cast filmographies. An absolute "must-see" for anyone who has enjoyed Charlotte Bronte's great works of literature. 84 min., color, widescreen, subtitles.
July 12, 2008

A masterpiece rendition of a literary masterpiece

Jean Rhys came to fame following her novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Most often the novel is read as a colonial-feminist corrective to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. The madwoman in the attic is here given a voice through her daughter who reenacts a self-same fate. The merits of the novel are manifold, and it is an exceptional feat that here is a rendition of the narrative with such vivid emotional energy and lush psychological initmations that it must be regarded as a magical piece of moviemaking. Mind you, my ratings are on the main consevative, but it would be best to append cum laude to this quiet production. The cast is outstanding so much so that the nuances of the tale are diffracted with dexterity while retaining the ambiguity of the textual equivocations, whereby no one character is easily packaged in an easy interpretation. Rather we see the coils and wranglings of passion, culture, conceit, pride, diffidence and the allure for the "other" with such sparkling clarity through a spectrum of carnivalesque dialectics that each character unveils a personality both complex and of vertiginous depth. The texture of the plot thickens with every turn and the allusions to Jane Eyre transcend the indulgence of the passions lived by the two main protagonists and the "colonial markings" are traceable everywhere. Adumbrations of postcolonial trauma, the wretched of the earth of the Carribean so to say, inform the espousal of two culture with that jarring brush of victimhood that stems from a people of insurmountable resources and affectations that are illegible to its counterpart. History is brought in as necessary but always contextual and well-pleated within the unfolding of the story. The music, the landscape, the overall pulsing energy makes of this tale of madness a prism through which women speak the candor of their inner turmoil as men betray themselves in an attempt to civilize the mind and soul of the truly free. And please there is no romanticizing involved here. In fact, even nostalgia proper is absent. Romantic reservations climax upon a crisis of identity that is ostensible and undeniable. It is a snapshot of a picture that bleeds with emotional beauty, and where the mixing of blood is frustrated by a magical hex that seizes the protagonists in an impasse that is heartfelt and indelible. Picture perfect. July 1, 2008

A great (and steamy) prequel to Jane Eyre!

Although it kind of takes a bite out of the Jane Eyre story that I know and love, I definitely enjoyed this steamy new movie version of the prequel by Jean Rhyss. Veteran Brit actor Rafe Spall and Rebecca Hall (Woody Allen's newest discovery) have wonderful chemistry and the story is haunting. June 30, 2008

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