I was lost !!

Glad you enjoyed the film. As far as the basic point of the story, that's something I've been fascinated by for a while - it's hard to be brief (at least for me) - there's a lot going on - on different levels.

I understand "Jane Eyre" as kind of an autobiography of the soul (Charlotte Bronte's), where inflexible dignity and self-knowledge allow a person to survive the brutality and indifference of the world. There's finally a real connection that's established, but love goes through struggle and calculated pain in order to be deserved. Love and compassion are exposed to struggle and shame but it leads to self-realization, a form of purification. Everyone probably sees it differently but for me that's the core of the story.

I think most filmmakers assume that the audience has already read Jane Eyre, and know the basic story, so they don't go into it in much detail.

I suppose the point comes across more clearly after reading the book which spends a great deal of time on Jane's childhood, more than most movie versions like to do. Jane was shunned and mistreated most of her young life, because she is the orphan daughter of a poor clergyman, being raised by a wealthy, aristocratic family that despises her. Finally, she is sent away to a charity school, where she is still mistreated. She is full of resentment. Then she makes friends with Helen Burns, who has a very clear set of beliefs and principles which help her through her troubles, and which Jane comes to adopt. First, the basic equality of all human beings in God's eyes, meaning that distinctions between men and women, rich and poor, etc. are artificial and false. Second, the value of suffering, not only to prepare for the afterlife, but as a way of strengthening one's mind and character. Third, the importance of not holding on to grievances and offences.

This time with Helen forms and influences Jane's personality as nothing else ever did. By the time she leaves Lowood School, she is not only well educated, but has also developed a great deal of inner strength and self-reliance.

These qualities are what wins over Mr Rochester, who finds her to be the one woman he can regard as an equal.
The same qualities make it impossible for her to go against her own principles and stay with Mr Rochester as his mistress. As she tells him (in the book), even if no one else cared what we did, I care for myself. She goes off into the world alone (a dangerous thing in those days).

There is a morality tale aspect to the next part. In being briefly lost and homeless on the moors, Jane is mildly chastised by God for, as Jane says to herself, "making an idol" of her lover and forgetting to place God first. Meanwhile, Rochester is more harshly punished for trying to trick Jane into a bigamous marriage, by being permanently injured in the fire. But God forgives, as shown by their fruitful marriage, and the fact that Rochester's sight begins to return when their first child is born.
That's the basic point.


Basta, basta, basta.

The movie begins in media res, but if you enjoy watching films, then I don't think that said opening is that much of an issue.

The point of the story is that Jane comes to live at Thornfield Hall to be the governess to Adele, a French girl who is the ward (and possible child) of Mr. Edward Rochester, who seems to be a cold and unfeeling man. Over time, it becomes plain that Rochester is in love with Jane and she with him. Rochester, unfortunately, has a crazy wife living in the attic. Since she is healthy and will likely not die any time soon and Rochester cannot be legally be rid of her by any means, he keeps her a secret and proposes to Jane anyhow.

When, at the wedding ceremony, Jane finds out that Bertha, the crazy lady in the attic, is alive, she runs away and starts another life. There, a man named St. John Rivers proposes to her, not because he loves her, but because he thinks she would make a good missionary. However, the supernatural intervenes and Jane has to return to see what has become of her true love before she can give St. John an honest answer, as she does not love him, but can see that there would be some merit in being wed to him. She returns to Thornfield and finds Rochester humbled in what I always find to be an overly cruel sort of punishment, but luckily, Bertha is deader than a doorpost, and the two can be together.

They marry, Jane has a son, and everyone lives happily ever after, except for St. John, who literally works himself to death for the glory of god (and I think, his own pride, but then again I think St. John is an ass) as said missionary in India.

Still lost? Hope not!

P.S. Read the book.

-------------------------
"It's better not to know so much about what things mean." David Lynch