Wide Sargasso Sea

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.

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

Running 1:24, about 15 minutes shorter than the 1993 film, this one cut out much more of the plot, apparently by design as much as necessity. We never see Antoinette's traumatic childhood experiences or her convent-school education; she mentions them briefly later.

After a lead-in scene previewing her time at Thornfield, the movie begins with Antoinette meeting Rochester for the first time. Some of its main drawbacks are immediately apparent. Antoinette, despite her West Indies upbringing, is portrayed as speaking with a native English accent (with occasional hints of Scots); she also comes across as more cheery and self-assured than in the book. Meanwhile, Rochester's brusque, rapid mumbling is often hard to understand.

This production focuses almost exclusively on the one main relationship, with far less effort devoted to adding island "flavor" or other atmospheric components. Scenes of Antoinette and Rochester dominate the screenplay: their excitement at meeting and marrying each other, their passionate physical encounters, their later conflicts as Rochester grows uncertain about her background and his situation. We see a bit less of the scheming Christophine and the seductive Amelie and only the tiniest evidence of other servants. Daniel Cosway, bearer of secrets about Antoinette's past, appears suddenly, rather than making himself known to Rochester through letters. It all feels a bit rushed.

Labeled NR (Not Rated), the film contains a few bits of female frontal nudity, some naked bodies placed strategically so nothing much shows, and lots of shadowy groping and panting.

This film features some beautiful scenery and nice production values (film angles, lighting, costumes, etc.). Due to its questionable portrayals and abbreviated plot lines, though, I wouldn't recommend it as highly as the 1993 version.

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!