A virginal heroine in thrall to a powerful and threatening older man has been the stuff of melodrama for hundreds of years.

Even today's teenagers lap up its latest incarnation in the Twilight series. Charlotte Bronte's seminal gothic novel on which Jane Eyre is based was published in 1847 and never lost its power.

Filmmakers were attracted to the book from the beginning of cinema: the first known film version was made in 1910, one of two produced that year, and at least four more versions were released in the silent era. You could be cynical and note that, because the book was out of copyright, no fees had to be paid to adapt it.

The most celebrated version until now has been the 1943 production that starred Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles. In addition there have been an Indian version of the story (Sangdil, 1952), at least eight television versions and the Australian film Wide Sargasso Sea (John Duigan, 1992) which filled in Rochester's back story. And let's not forget Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie, a horror film made the same year as the Fontaine-Welles version, which uses Bronte's basic story (uncredited) in all sorts of interesting ways.

So what can be said about yet another version? Well, to start with, it stars the Canberra-born actress Mia Wasikowska as Jane, and she's quite marvellous.

As Jane Eyre, a role she was born to play, she radiates solemn intelligence and wide-eyed innocence along with intrinsic pride and idealism.

As Edward Rochester, the mysterious owner of Thornfield Hall, Michael Fassbender is astonishing cast. His first appearance, seen by Jane on horseback, is a splendid moment that creates exactly the right mood of excitement and danger.

The love affair at the story's centre is in first-class hands. In the book, it must be said, Rochester is depicted as being considerably less attractive, and Jane is literally a plain Jane, something that can't be said for Wasikowska. These concessions aren't unwelcome.

I'm assuming just about everyone knows the story. In this version, adapted by Moira Buffini (who scripted the smart British comedy Tamara Drewe) and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the story is told non-sequentially, beginning as Jane flees Thornfield into a wild, storm-tossed landscape of beautiful but dangerous moors and eventually seeks shelter in the home of a clergyman, St John Rivers (Jamie Bell) and his sisters.

Flashbacks then take us back to Jane's childhood (in these scenes Amelia Clarkson plays the character). Orphaned, she is mistreated by her aunt, Mrs Reed (Sally Hawkins having a break from the eternally sunny character she usually plays), and sent to a charity school where she befriends poor, doomed Helen Burns (Freya Parks).

In her late teens (now played by Wasikowska), Jane is sent to Thornfield as governess to Adele (Romy Settbon Moore), the ward of the usually absent Rochester, and finds a friend in housekeeper Mrs Fairfax (Judi Dench, bringing great substance to the role).

Fukunaga, whose father is Japanese and mother is Swedish, was largely reared in the US. There he directed what is so far his only other film, the well-regarded Sin Nombre, a thriller set in Mexico that sadly hasn't received a commercial release in this country.

He wasn't the most obvious choice to direct this perennial love story but he has done an outstanding job, bringing an outsider's eye to capture details of Britain's class structure in the 19th century and a poet's vision to the beautiful, lowering landscapes.

This is the best adaptation of the novel since the 1943 version.