Jane Eyre – 8

The very height of Romantic melodrama, portrayed flawlessly by Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Cary Fukunaga’s mise-en-scene borrows liberally from Vermeer and De la Tour, matching the spareness and directness of the love story: one girl, one man – and oh, a crazy lady up in the attic. Nobody does Masterpiece Classics like the British, and this is a worthy addition to the pantheon. Why is this, then, not a 10? For all its perfection, this is a small story, a girl’s story – wonderful, but not very large or, for me, terribly engaging.