feature of the same name, this British production from director Brendan Maher constitutes an adaptation of Jean Rhys's seminal 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea - itself a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. The Maher film, per its source novel, imagines the history and backstory of the first Mrs. Rochester, and tells how an innocent girl, torn violently between two cultures, ultimately became the infamous "madwoman in the attic" limned by Bronte. The tale begins in Jamaica of the 1830s, with Englishman Edward Rochester (Rafe Spall) arriving in Jamaica to stake out a fortune. He meets and falls hard for Antoinette Cosway (Rebecca Hall), a Creole heiress, who gives herself to him unquestioningly, and shares her dowry - including a sprawling, palatial honeymoon manor. For a time, all is bliss, but soon lust devolves into paranoid fear, betrayal, and tragedy.
It's 1958 Manhattan and Miriam "Midge" Maisel has everything she's ever wanted - the perfect husband, kids, and Upper West Side apartment. But when her life suddenly takes a turn and Midge must start over, she discovers a previously unknown talent - one that will take her all the way from the comedy clubs of Greenwich Village to a spot on Johnny Carson's couch.