Acclaimed English director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s tragic JUDE THE OBSCURE is a profoundly moving drama that is unrelentingly bleak in its depiction of love and poverty in the late-19th Century. The story follows Jude Fawley (Christopher Eccleston), a young English lad who finds a mentor in a schoolmaster named Phillotson (Liam Cunningham). Years later, after he's been married and cruelly abandoned by his wife, Jude meets his independent cousin Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet), and falls in love. He introduces her to Phillotson, who becomes smitten with Sue as well, sparking a love triangle that will alter their lives forever.
With JUDE, Winterbottom proves that he is one of the world's most versatile and proficient filmmakers. In translating Hardy's novel to the screen, he retains the author’s bitter hopelessness without succumbing to overt sentimentality. This can also be attributed to Eccleston, whose portrayal of the unfortunate hero is deeply affecting. As Jude’s second wife, Winslet is her usual magnetic self, giving the audience yet another character with whom they will sympathize as the film builds to its somber conclusion. Special mention should also be given to Adrian Johnston’s score and Joseph Bennett’s production design.
(16 votes)
2.
British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom didn't make a particularly good film until Welcome to Sarajevo, and this curiously dry adaptation of Thomas Hardy's last novel is a good example. Christopher Eccleston plays Jude Fawley, a self-educated stonemason who dreams of attending university but identifies with the working class. Kate Winslet is his cousin Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings and a position as a teacher's assistant. When the two enter into an illicit union, they are condemned to the margins of society, ultimately resulting in a horrifying tragedy. Winterbottom takes an oddly lean approach to Hardy's deterministic story, which leaves a viewer feeling short on emotion just when one needs it for the from-bad-to-worse third act. Welcome to Sarajevo proved that Winterbottom needs a whole other level of personal involvement to make a film that inspires him. Jude isn't one of those lucky films. --Tom Keogh
(15 votes)
3.
This curiously dry adaptation of Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude is a good example of Michael Winterbottom's inability to make a particularly good film until Welcome to Sarajevo. Christopher Eccleston plays Jude Fawley, a self-educated stonemason who holds the dream of attending university but identifies with the working class. Kate Winslet is enlisted to play his cousin Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings and a position as a teacher's assistant. When the two enter into an illicit union, they are condemned to the margins of society, ultimately resulting in a horrifying tragedy. Winterbottom takes an oddly lean approach to Hardy's deterministic story, which leaves a viewer feeling short on emotion just when one needs it for the from-bad-to-worse third act. Welcome to Sarajevo proved that Winterbottom needs a whole other level of personal involvement to make a film that inspires him. Jude isn't one of those lucky films. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
(15 votes)
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