Interesting concept | Wide Sargasso Sea (Unrated) [VHS]

Would be improved by more character development | Wide Sargasso Sea (Unrated) [VHS] | Karina Lombard, Nathaniel Parker

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	• Wide Sargasso Sea (Unrated) [VHS] Karina Lombard, Nathaniel Parker New Line Home Video, 1996 average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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A prequel to Jane Eyre?

I was surprised to find a prequel to Jane Eyre and even more surprised to discover what a hot story it is. This movie stars the very sultry Karina Lombard and the very look-at-able Nathaniel Parker, who start their arranged marriage happily in bed and then come to hate each other (it isn't entirely clear why). True Jane Eyre fans may find this movie too explicit.

Interesting concept

This is the story of Mr. Rochester's mad wife and how they got together. I only gave this video 4 stars because I like the concept and the story itself was intriguing.
The editing wasn't all that great and the screenplay didn't do much for me. I didn't mind that it was erotic. You can choose your rating btw and watch hotter if you like. I watched the lesser "R" rating and wished there had been a PG. I really did not need to see Mr. Rochester naked, but some people may like that.
I liked that it was told in the wife's point of view. That was intriguing. I didn't like how it made Mr. Rochester look in parts because I thought it was unfair. But, I'm admittedly a Mr. Rochester fan so perhaps that's colored my opinion.
All in all I wish I had rented this. But if you can't rent it I think it is worth buying.

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Would be improved by more character development

I'm a great fan of _Jane Eyre_ but have not read _Wide Sargasso Sea_, though reviewers of the film say the book is better.

This could have been an excellent character film, showing how Rochester exaggerated his relationship with his wife "Bertha" to Jane. Was Mason the brother-in-law mad, and passing a hereditary madness on to "Bertha"? No, he and his brother (the one who married Antoinette/Bertha's widowed mother) were not only not even her biological relatives, they were merely dips. Was Antoinette's mother mad? According to Antoinette's account, merely grief-stricken, alcoholic, sexy, and socially inconvenient--hence, locked up by the men who had legal power over her. And why should Rochester believe the statements of Daniel the half-brother? First, Daniel is an extortionist. Second, his revelation that Antoinette's father had affairs with his slaves is deeply shocking to Rochester, who somehow blames it on Antoinette. While I'm not condoning it, many other slaveowners did the same, so it would hardly have shocked a period Jamaican. Rochester, in fact, consistently refuses to accept Jamaica--he's constantly complaining about the climate, doesn't understand the racial tensions, and so on.

Still, Rochester's character could have been developed more deeply. As for Antoinette, she's merely a one-dimensional "child of nature," devoted to long sleeps, sex, and an enjoyment of the sultry climate. Given that after her parents' death she seems to have been brought up in a Catholic boarding school, she should display more in the way of education, social graces, and well, character. A more rounded character would make Antoinette far more sympathetic. As it is, the viewer is tempted to side with Rochester in wanting a wife who is interested in more than sex.

And one thing that would have been far more powerful, is establishing Antoinette as locked up by Rochester merely as an inconvenience, an alcoholic wife who doesn't understand British culture. One scene with Rochester urging/paying a doctor to certify Antoinette as mad no matter what, would have done this beautifully.

Other than that, although Nathaniel Parker doesn't look bad in the nude, Antoinette is too scrawny (and seems unable to do anything with her hair other than a modern pageboy style, for in bed or out of it). In summary, the film would be far better with more emphasis on character and less on sex. I will say that the actors doing Afro-Haitian dance actually do it well, unlike the ludicrously stiff and unpractised attempts at walzing done by the actors playing British characters. Also, the scenery is gorgeous.

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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.

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