Wide Sargasso Sea

Starring:Karina Lombard, Nathaniel Parker, Rachel Ward, Michael York, Martine Beswick, Claudia Robinson, Huw Christie Williams, Casey Berna, Rowena King, Ben Thomas (VIII), Paul Campbell (IV), Audbrey Pilatus, Ancile Gloudon, Dominic Needham, Kevin Thomas, Aisha King, Anika Gordon, Elfreida Reid, Bobby Smith, Suzanne McMannus
Director: John Duigan
Studio: New Line Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

A prequel to "Jane Eyre." An Englishman in nineteenth-century Jamaica falls into a tortured marriage with a native Creole. When the woman begins to go mad, her husband takes her back to his gothic estate in England, where he locks her in the attic.

Customer Reviews:

nice prequel to Jane Eyre.......2007-01-13

Many reviewers here did not like this, but I found it quite interesting. You get the young Rochester, and this time around his pre-crazy wife is shown completely sympathetically, like a victim of his insensitivity rather than the curse hidden away (that he had to bear due to fate alone). In my opinion, this adds depth to the characters. It is easy, of course, to interpret her insanity as inevitable, but I saw it as a role that was created for her in the marriage, and it didn't need to be that way - Rochester allowed it to happen, even participated in it, and so bears some responsibility; he then abandons her once a better life-style opportunity arises. Also, the film stands very well on its own; it was only after I saw it that I realized it was the characters from Bronte. The acting is very good, particularly Lombard.

Warmly recommended.

This film was not faithful to the adaptation of the novel........2006-06-29

There's lots of passion in Wide Sargasso Sea THE BOOK, but it's mostly emotional. It's an extremely multi-layered novel and the work of a true master. The film on the other hand is just your classic, bad 1990s film, beautiful to look at, with lots of skin, languid copulation, heaving bosoms, bodice-ripping nonsense, etc and next to no substance. It has no artistic integrity whatsoever, as its shameless makers must surely know they lifted their middle finger at the spirit of the Jean Rhys novel when choosing to make the film the way they did.

I was unable to feel empathy for both the lead character. The much touted erotic scenes were not developed to what they lead to believe, and it also lacked much enthusiasm. They were incomplete and contributed little, if anything, to the plot. The viewer only gets a glimpse of the passion that supposedly exists between Edward and Antoinette. Therefore, they should have either gone all the way, tastefully (no pun intended), or have left those scenes out entirely.

Now with regards to the plot of this film there were enormous holes, which perhaps could be rectified by reading the book. But for those who haven't read the book, there should be enough information in the film itself to keep the reader afloat. From the start it was unclear what was really going on with this family (despite the narration). Why did the ex-slaves keep laughing? (Something vaguely explained in the movie, though apparently fully explained in the book). Why didn't the parrot fly away? What made the mother go nuts? At no point in the movie were Mr. Rochester's "issues", as it were, fully explained. The man gets a letter exposing his wife as a Creole and dumps her like a hot potato, after (as Christophene explains) he was the one who came crawling to her in the first place. What a hypocrite. Again, maybe this is the ultimate point, that Mr. Rochester is a snob and the archetypical Victorian Englishman and that Antoinette is the victim of both his prejudice and that of the Jamaicans. But none of that exonerates the appallingly abrupt conclusion to the film.

So, despite the beautiful cinematography, this movie is a hopeless muddle. I'd highly recommend the novel by the way: a book you don't forget in a hurry. Needless to say I think you should give this insulting (to the memory of Jean Rhys) film a miss, especially if you've read the novel: it'll just frustrate you, no matter how keen on a bit of easy titillation you may be feeling at the time.

I just returned from Jamaica.......2006-03-24

I just returned from visiting the island of Jamaica and traveling to the home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's family estate. Standing on the windswept veranda of the home high on a hill miles from the ocean but from where I could see the blue Caribbean, I was reminded of the scene from "Wide Sargasso Sea" which took place at the honeymoon home of Antoinnette and her English husband, Edward Rochester; the scene in which Rochester, still under the influence of the love potion, "too strong for a white man" has sex with Antoinnette's milatto half sister.

I read "Wide Sagasso Sea" and saw the movie years ago but suddenly I needed to own the video as I own the book. The islands are all beautiful but with their sad, slave ridden history and present day poverty, it's painful to visit them. I wish something could be done to help the people of Jamaica and the other islanders so they could live better and not have to depend on the ficleness of tourism alone.

I tried, but I really couldn't understand........2005-12-14

For the record I've never read "Wide Sargasso Sea" although I've read "Jane Eyre" quite a few times. I've always figured Edward Rochester was a bad man. Every relationship he had with women before his involvement with Jane ended badly. With one lunatic wife and one dead mistress...Well...

I admit to feeling equal parts awe and disappointment with this film. It wasn't that the erotic excesses offended me; I just felt less attention to erotic love scenes and more attention to the rather heavy themes in story would have made things more interesting.

The movie is not consistent with Rochester's portrayal in Jane Eyre or his explanations of his marriage to Antoinette. The implication is that Antoinette was descended from lunatics and was also a notorious adulteress (there were even hints her insanity was the result of syphilis in "Jane Eyre"). Antoinette's brother in the novel, Richard Mason, is completely eliminated as a character.

In the movie, Antoinette is presented as a lonely orphan with no close family to cover up her alleged madness and "vices".

There are other inconsistencies that just stray too far from Rochester's explanations as well as Bronte's novel to keep a true Bronte fan engaged.

Antoinette and Amelie are two-dimensional characters, competing for the sexual favors of Antoinette's loser husband who doesn't particularly like or respect either one of them.

It looks like the brains behind the film could not decide whether Edward Rochester was a racist libertine or a victim of circumstance. The balance is tipped by saddistic behavior (i.e., killing animals and brutalizing his young wife.) He is basically a fortune-hunter who does not hesitate to despise his wife's cultural differences once he's acquired her wealth and properties.

I think the writers hoped to create a theme of Black/African female empowerment by having Amelie seduce Rochester, then accept a gift of money from him and walk out of his life to become a whore.

Also, it is never clear to me when/how Antoinette went mad. She does not strike me as mad or even unstable in the course of the film although she does portray classic alcoholism and depression after her husband's abandonment. Surely no one presumes she is psychopathic because she tried to club Rochester with with a glass bottle and spit in his face after he had loud noisy sex with Amelie just outside her bedroom!

Even the portrayal of Daniel Cosway is sort of weird. One minute he appears to be affectionate towards Antoinette (his half-sister) and the next he is bound and determined to do everything he possibly can to ruin her marriage and destroy any opportunity for her happiness.

The two actresses who portray Aunt Cora and Christophine deliver solid performances and Lombard does her best with her role and makes the most of her improbable lingerie (midriff-baring camisoles were not around in 1840.)

The film has lush beautiful scenes and an almost fantasy quality about it and costume quality is good except for inaccutate lingerie. I think it's best to watch and appreciate the film for what it is and not worry too much about accuracy with its actual novel or Jane Eyre. As an erotic romance gone bad it's a keeper.

Interesting and Haunting Movie.......2005-11-17

The film opens with an explanation of why the mother of the main character, Antoinette, goes insane thus leaving her in the care of her aunt. Because her mother's second husband is English, her aunt makes the arrangements for Antoinette to marry Rochester.

After the marriage, Antoinette falls more and more in love with Rochester, while he becomes disturbed by the heightened emotions and attraction. From there the relationship deteriorates and ultimately Rochester decides to return to England, taking Antoinette with him.

The scenes and cinematography are so lush and beautiful. They really do an interesting job of making the Jamaican home seem like the ideal prision for Rochester.

The story was haunting, but it needed some editing. It could have been a bit shorter and the sex scenes were more graphic than necessary, but it's an adult movie with adult topics.

I enjoyed the movie, but it's not one that I would watch multiple times.

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