Jane Eyre (2011)

Comparison is more than fair: this 2011 adaptation is filmed in the same location (and often in the very same rooms), is based on the same screenplay, and is frequently a scene-by-scene copy of the BBC four-episode TV series of 2009, so the question is why this Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed adaptation, which gives painstaking attention to realising the look and feel of Charlotte Bronte's novel, chops the story to pieces, starting in the middle, unnecessarily, and lurching unevenly through the events of Eyre's life, either glossing over or entirely deleting key moments from the book AND the BBC TV series with the end result a visually-, aurally-pleasing video clip zapped of most of the story's romance and emotion.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Tracks (2013)

This movie based on the book, Tracks by Robyn "The Camel Lady" Davidson, details her 1977 journey across 2000km of Australian desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean with just her dog and three camels, and it brings the outback to staggeringly beautiful life and along the way tantalises with bits and pieces of information about her, helping with the mystery of why anyone so young would strike so determinedly upon such a singular, dangerous and lonely plan.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Stoker (2013)

A pleasing thriller for fans of Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, this story of mysterious Uncle Charlie's arrival into a schoolgirl's life has a distinctive arty, gothic style, stellar performances from its four main leads - Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Jackie Weaver - and is notable for being the first English-language production of director Park Chan-wook. 

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS