Eyre’ succeeds, thanks to a lack of vampires

When I saw the trailer for the new version of “Jane Eyre,” i was certain I knew what the producers were up to: They were trying to take advantage of the ongoing fascination with vampires to attract a new audience to an old story.

But director Cary Fukunaga isn’t trying to direct “Twilight.” Or anything similar. Instead, he’s trying to update an 1847 novel to the 21st century. And if the ghosts seems more real, if the Dickensian hardships are more pronounced and if the occasional delving into violence is more graphic, then the feminist leanings, too, feel far more contemporary … and justified.

Mia Waskikowska (“In Treatment,” “Alice in Wonderland”) plays the title character, an orphaned young thing who escapes both a loveless foster home and an even worse boarding school only to end up in an estate lorded over by a domineering master named Rochester (Michael Fassbender) with a dark secret.

That secret is the basis upon which both the novel and all film adaptations (there have been several) revolve. But what sets Kukunaga’s version apart involves both the two main performances and the film’s attention to period detail (I have never felt colder in a theater).

The film is supposed to leave AMC this week. But word is it will get picked up by the Magic Lantern. I’d suggest seeing it. It might not be something that, say, the Bronte estate would endorse. But I certainly do.

Not despite but because it refrains from showing anyone sucking blood.

Below : A featurette for “Jane Eyre.”