| Director | Cary Joji Fukunaga |
|---|---|
| Budget | $13 million |
| Box office | $35 million |
A tearful Jane Eyre runs away from Thornfield Hall, finding herself alone on the moors. She collapses at the doorstep of Moor House, home of St. John Rivers and his sisters Diana and Mary; they take Jane in and nurse her back to health.
The film flashes between Jane's recovery and her grim childhood. An orphan, she is treated cruelly by her cousin John and aunt Mrs. Reed. Jane is sent to the Lowood School for Girls; under the strict Mr. Brocklehurst, the girls are beaten, but Jane befriends fellow pupil Helen Burns, who dies of consumption.
Eight years later, Jane, now 18, leaves Lowood for a position at Thornfield Hall. Welcomed by the kindly housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax, Jane begins a plain and isolated life as governess to Adèle Varens, the young French ward of Thornfield's owner. One day, Jane sees a rider thrown by his horse and comes to his aid. Returning to Thornfield, she learns the man is Edward Rochester, master of the house. He grudgingly praises her instruction of Adèle, and her own "openness and unpolluted mind”; the two find themselves curiously attracted to one another.
One night, Jane discovers Rochester's room on fire, which they manage to extinguish; he warns her not to speak of the incident, and they share a chaste but passionate moment. The next day, Rochester leaves suddenly to call on Blanche Ingram, who Mrs. Fairfax tells Jane is Rochester's prospective wife; she and her family return with him a few weeks later on a grand visit to Thornfield.
Rochester confronts Jane, who is hurt by Blanche's presence, but is interrupted by an unexpected guest – Richard Mason from Spanish Town, Jamaica, whose arrival disturbs Rochester. That night, the household is awakened by a scream. Rochester reassures the guests, but brings Jane to tend to Mason, who has been badly injured. Jane notices a hidden door in Rochester's room before Mason is taken away by a doctor. Rochester confides in Jane, cryptically, that he is haunted by a past mistake but has fallen for a new woman in his life; Jane believes he means Blanche.
Jane receives word that her cousin John has committed suicide, leading her aunt to suffer a stroke. Jane returns to her dying aunt, who gives her a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, John Eyre, asking that Jane live with him in Madeira as his heir. The letter is three years old, and Mrs. Reed admits to writing to John to the effect that Jane had died at Lowood. Jane forgives her aunt and returns to Thornfield, beginning a correspondence with John.
Faced with Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche, Jane tells Rochester she will leave Thornfield and confesses her true feelings for him. Rochester declares that Jane is his only love and proposes; she accepts. At their wedding, Mason appears with a lawyer and reveals that Rochester is already married to Mason's sister, Bertha. Rochester admits the truth and takes Jane to meet his violently deranged wife, kept in a hidden room at Thornfield. Rochester explains that his father made him marry Bertha for her money, but she gradually descended into madness and he locked her away rather than subject her to an asylum; she had been responsible for the strange happenings in the house. Rochester pleads with Jane to stay, but wounded by his deception, she leaves Thornfield.
After her recovery at Moor House, St. John gives Jane a teaching position and a cottage. One night, she imagines a knock at her door to be Rochester, but instead finds St. John with news that her uncle John has died and left her his fortune of £20,000 (). Jane offers to share her inheritance with St. John and his sisters, and the four live together at Moor House. St. John asks Jane to marry and accompany him to India as missionaries, but she rejects him.
Jane returns to Thornfield to find the house a blackened ruin. She learns from Mrs. Fairfax that Bertha set fire to the house; Rochester was able to rescue everyone but his wife. Jane visits Rochester, now blind, and the two are reunited.