Wide Sargasso Sea

Having always been an avid lover of Jane Eyre, picking it apart in Eng. Lit. A-level was a painful and disillusioning experience, as Charlotte Bronte's startling racism is exposed, and you realise just how annoying Jane really is. The BBC 1 adaptation of the book has helped restore my love of the story, but THIS drama was truly inspiring.

The doomed love affair was splendidly crafted. Edward Rochester, young, moody, disregarded by his family is coerced into marrying Antoinette Cosway-Mason, a beautiful, innocent girl of creole descent. After the initial passion, whispers of Antoinette's heritage, her promiscuity, and rumours of her mad murderous mother come to drive Rochester away from his wife. When he finds her beating a servant (who previously was abusing her mistress' non-white, non-black background), Rochester starts to believe in her hereditary madness, and becomes repulsed with the islands, their exotic honeymoon home and his ethnic wife. Rochester here seemed more moody than his older, chattering counterpart, but you have to remind yourself that this is the young man as he was, and it was refreshing to hear his perspective as well. 'Bertha's character by Rebecca Hall was sublime: shown with such sincerity, passion; complete, even down to the nuances of the regionally-indefinable accent. There are so many moving lines in this short drama. The scene where she yells 'My name is ANTOINETTE!' was gut-wrenching.

When Antoinette reveals her mother's true story, we believe the rift is healed, and trust restored. Yet the unwise use of a love potion convinces him again of her betrayal, and his lust and vengeance lead to a powerful scene where Antoinette slumps against the door of her bedroom wherein her husband is -literally- banging the maid.

Marvellous to watch, the loose camera-work and exotic locations bring together a flavour of mystery and mysticism, enhanced by the delicate melodies weaving in and out of the scenes, and the exotic, pulsating drum rhythms - I'd watch it again just to hear the soundtrack.

All in all, it ends in tragedy for both; she driven mad by hatred for him, and he overcome by regret when he realises that it was his fault. We know he cared about her - it was clear in Jane Eyre; yet here it seems that it was just not enough.

Mrs Rochester the First: in my opinion, infinitely better.

Jane Eyre is currently on UK TV and it was good to see this prequel, even though it was written by another, more contemporary, writer. It managed to convey the sense of mid 1800s Jamaica wonderfully and the imagery was just superb. Both leads were excellent and the sex scenes , while maybe not suitable for under 12s, were portrayed sympathetically and were quite erotic in places

Thoroughly recommended

and Rafe Spall has the sexiest lips ever!!!!!I have never seen him in anything before but I was fascinated by his acting ability. He managed to dominate the screen whatever scene he was in. Rebecca Hall was also good as the doomed Antoinette

Excellently filmed in Jamaica this adaptation gripped me throughout not least because Rebecca Hall who plays Antoinette is so beautiful and caries off her part as a mixed race fairly wealthy Jamaican lady who is being used by the man she marries because she will provide him a solution to his money problems.

This really is multi-layered, moving, gripping, the scenery and music add to the drama and we really see each character come to life on the screen. The racism of white visitors and settlers in Jamaica's early days is not overlooked and neither is the immorality and it's double standards that existed among the so called better classes.

This version contains a fair amount of nudity and fairly graphic sex scenes but it all seems very necessary to show the good and evil side of the characters.

This movie is not another attempt of adapting the novel and provide an alternative to the previous, famously bad adaptation from 1993. It's almost word by word, scene by scene copy of the previously used script, except now employing worse acting, poor cinematography (most scenes are shaky and poorly lighted, as if they were filmed by hand by unpaid amateurs), and terrible sound. I could hardly hear, not to mention understand what Rochester is saying because he hardly bothers to actually open his mouth, and it's all half-unaudible mumbling. I also don't really think the actress playing Antoinette has the right appearance to play a creole person. Also, the poorly done whitened hair and eyebrows meaning to make a young actress with skin as smooth as Spring flower petals look like an elderly woman who nursed the story's heroine is just sad to behold.

All in all this adaptation is not bringing any added value, it just takes the previous failure and makes it into an even bigger one.

Thought-provoking, multi-layered, moving, gripping, with wonderful scenery and music, and outstanding performances from Rafe Spall (son of Timothy Spall) and especially Rebecca Hall (daughter of Peter Hall, previously seen in The Camomile Lawn).

It deserves all the BAFTAs going! Hopefully it will be released on DVD before long.

Based on the classic book by Jean Rhys, who was herself a Creole, written in 1966 - apparently one of the 'best 100 books ever' on Time's listings. It's an illuminating prequel to Jane Eyre, and a story which in my opinion is actually better than Bronte's classic.

And I'm writing this as someone who can't stand Jane Eyre and wouldn't normally dream of watching this kind of film!