The film also has somber fun with Thornfield as a haunted house of alarming sounds and squeaking timbers.

WSJ: Jane Eyre, Mars Needs Moms and Red Riding Hood | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

He is the second master of Thornfield Hall who has pretended not to hear the scrapings and wailings from above.

ECONOMIST: A stirring in the attic | The

They've rearranged the narrative by starting with Jane's heartsick flight from Thornfield Hall, by spending useful time on her usually scanted encounter with St.

WSJ: Jane Eyre, Mars Needs Moms and Red Riding Hood | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

But although this was embarrassing, it was not calamitous: it was a muffled wail, as it were, that the master of Thornfield Hall could pretend not to hear.

ECONOMIST: A stirring in the attic | The

John Rivers (Jamie Bell) and his family, and by playing, as powerful flashbacks, her harsh childhood as an orphan as well as her time as a governess at Thornfield.

WSJ: Jane Eyre, Mars Needs Moms and Red Riding Hood | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern

It was the equivalent, if not of burning Thornfield Hall to the ground, then at least of ripping down the paper which Mr Hague had spent a year laying over its most jagged cracks.

ECONOMIST: A stirring in the attic | The

But I also remember the jolt of wonder and delight I felt years ago reading Jean Rhys's novel, "Wide Sargasso Sea, " when I realized that Antoinette Cosway, the main character, was the girl who would one day marry Mr. Rochester and go mad in his attic at Thornfield.

WSJ: The Fine Points of Fan Fiction, from 'Fifty Shades' to 'Lavinia' | Dear Book Lover