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Having recently seen Franco Zeffirelli’s 1996 version of the Charlotte Bronte tale, it’s hard not to compare the two. It’s easy though to be impressed with what director Cary Fukunaga has accomplished with this new version of the much-adapted romance. He brings new tension and artistry.

The film begins with an extremely effective foreshadowing. We see the older Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska, ALICE IN WONDERLAND) fleeing from Thornfield Hall, across a rocky field. She is exhausted. Seeing a house distant she makes her way there and collapses on the doorstep where she is saved by preacher St John Rivers (Jamie Bell, BILLY ELLIOTT). He and his sisters nurse her back to health and find her employment at a charity school. She says she is content because for the first time in her life, she is not subordinate to anyone.

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Franco Zeffirelli’s rendition of Charlotte Bronte’s gothic romance seems quaint now 15 years after its release. The director known for his lavish period dramas, especially his classic 1968 version of ROMEO AND JULIET, gives this story a quality “Masterpiece Theater” approach.

Young Jane Eyre (Anna Paquin, THE PIANO) is an orphan whose aunt Mrs. Reed (Fiona Shaw, HARRY POTTER) sends her off to the oppressive religious boarding school, run by the sadists Mr. Brocklehurst (John Wood, WARGAMES) and Miss Scatcherd (Geraldine Chaplin, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS). It’s a very Dickensian start to her life. After suffering under the school’s rule, she (played as a young woman by Charlotte Gainsbourg (ANTI-CHRIST)) is hired on as a governess at the estate of Edward Rochester (William Hurt, ACCIDENTIAL TOURIST) where she is to care for his French ward Adele (Josephine Serre). The house is run by the pleasant Mrs. Fairfax (Joan Plowright, ENCHANTED APRIL), who describes her master as a man who is hard to read. He is an unhappy man, she says.

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With this film, Takashi Miike has made his most accessible movie to date. I’d argue it is his best because it is tighter and less obsessed with shock than any of his previous work. Some might say this ode to the samurai genre, especially the work of Akira Kurasawa, is his least daring, but his daring sometimes doesn’t make for a compelling story. This is an actioner done the right way.

Set in 1844 when the reign of the samurai was coming to an end, a samurai commits seppuku in protest of the political advancement of Lord Naritsugu (Goro Inagaki, SAIMIN), the son of the former shogun and the brother of the current one. He is a ruthless sadist, who enjoys murder, torture and rape as a form of control over the peasants. Top official Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira, SWORD OF THE BEAST) makes the decision to have Naritsugu assassinated and calls on veteran samurai Shinzaemon (Koji Takusho, SHALL WE DANCE?), who when found is fishing on a ladder in the ocean. Shinzaemon is eager to take the job. He shakes at the thought of having a noble death.

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When Steven Russell meets Phillip Morris in prison he catches a terminal cancer called love. He is consumed with giving Phillip the world. To do so he pays off guards, poses as a lawyer to get Phillip released early and scams millions out of a health care company in order to fund their lavish lifestyle. Oh what a guy won’t do for love.

Jim Carrey plays Steve Russell, who at the start of the film is a married cop who plays the organ at church every week, which he attends with his June Cleaver wife Debbie (Leslie Mann, KNOCKED UP). As a child, he was adopted through some not so legal means. He uses his access at work to locate his real mother to find out why she sold him. After that doesn’t work out too well, he moves his family away. Following a car accident, he declares that he has been living a lie and boldly comes out as gay.

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ROLLER BOOGIE is from the long Hollywood tradition of trying to cash in on youth trends. This little confection tried to capture the roller skating culture of Venice Beach. It casts a 20-year-old Linda Blair in the lead and a roller skating champion with no acting experience as her love interest. They’re just kids having fun, but it’s the stuffy adults that always have to come and ruin their vibe.

Blair (THE EXORCIST) plays Terry Barkley, a rich girl from Bel-Air whose parents want her to be a concert flutist. She wants to be a roller skating champion. As an adult myself, it’s hard to 100% root for her life decisions there. Bobby James (Jim Bray) is an amateur roller skating champ, who works at a skate rental stand on the boardwalk. They met up at the local roller rink where his friends bet him that he can’t get her to skate with him, because there is no way a girl driving a million dollar car would ever skate with a beach bum. As you can guess, she not only skates with him, but also asks him to teach her to skate like him.

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Actor David Schwimmer has directed an R-rated film that every 13 year old should see. If some parents are skittish about this they should see it for themselves. It might scare them into reconsidering. With a frank approach, the intense drama deals with sexual predators on the Internet. It understands how teens use new media to communicate. It understands how pedophiles use new media to exploit them.

Annie (Liana Liberato, TRESPASS) is 14. She hasn’t had a boyfriend yet and even feels awkward around other girls who talk openly about sex. She meets a boy from California on the Internet named Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey, THE INTERNATIONAL). He plays volleyball like her and really gets her. They text, chat and talk on the phone constantly. At first he says he is 15 then in college then he is a grad student. She asks him why he keeps lying to her and he always has the right answer. When they finally meet, she is brought to tears when it is clear that he is well into his 30s. But he says, “I’m still Charlie.”

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Bill Cunningham is a man of integrity. Despite being a legendary photographer in the fashion world, he lives in a tiny, rent-controlled apartment in Carnegie Hall. His room is filled with file cabinets with decades of negatives and a bed. The bathroom is in the hall. For much of his work, he refused to take money, because he didn’t want anyone to own him or his work. He won’t even take a free glass of water at the events he covers. His work is his life and he won’t compromise that.

During the film, Cunningham celebrates his 80th birthday. He has been taking pictures of New Yorkers and what they wear for decades. The film features a who’s whos list of editors from the top fashion magazines who follow is work because he has a keen eye for catching trends that are growing out of the streets. In covering fashion shows, he has a keen eye for when a designer is copying something done before and has no qualms pointing it out. He loves fashion, which he describes as our armor to go out into the world.

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Albert Brooks’ character was once a movie producer. He describes his films as action-filled and sexy. Once a critic described them as European, he says. I’d call this intense actioner European as well, but not for the same reasons. The action is precisely planned in bursts in an otherwise quiet film. The tone never shifts but depending on what is going on it can be ominous or romantic. It’s artful and bloody. It’s visceral and elegant.

In an existential move harkening back to car movies of the 1970s like TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, the protagonist is simply known as Driver (Ryan Gosling, CRAZY. STUPID. LOVE.). He works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston, TV’s BREAKING BAD) as a mechanic at his auto shop and part time as a stunt driver for the movies. Shannon wants to start racing cars and asks shady business man Bernie Rose (Brooks, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE) and Nino (Ron Perlman, HELLBOY) to invest in the young man. Moonlighting, Driver drives get away cars for criminals. He gives the thieves the same deal. A five-minute window, he doesn’t carry a gun and he doesn’t get involved.

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What if upon your mother’s death you learned that your father was still alive and that you had a brother you never knew about? Then you were asked to find them. Through the process you learn shocking details of your mother’s past. What if the woman that always seemed a little weird was actually a legend in her native country?

Jeanne (Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin, TAKING THE PLUNGE) and Simon Marwan (Maxim Gaudette, CHEECH) are faced with these questions when their mother Nawal (Lubna Azabal, PARADISE NOW) passes away suddenly. He doesn’t want anything to do with his mother’s surprising last request, but Jeanne knows that she will be haunted by it if she doesn’t go looking for her father. As details, she will pull her brother into the search, simply because it is too emotional to do it on her own.

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Read my review of INCENDIES

Mostly filmed using natural light, this Oscar nominated film benefits greatly from the detail of this 1080p transfer. Andre Turpin’s cinematography could have come off dim and murky in a bad transfer or heaven forbid DVD, but this first rate job has keep its visual integrity. The color palette is natural and the black levels are solid. The natural lighting does dampen the crispness of the image, but that doesn’t mean details don’t pop.

The soundtrack is presented in French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The film is a dialogue driven film, but there are moments where war takes over the soundspace. Gunfire whizzes across the sound field. A burning bus rages in the back speakers. Street scenes bring an immersive quality to the scenes. For the most part, the elements are balanced nicely. The Radiohead song used seems to be overpowering at times though.

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