The Claim - 10/10, reminds me of McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Anyone who liked that owes it to themselves to check this out. And I need to start looking for more films by Michael Winterbottom.
Yeah,
The Claim, based on Thomas Hardy's novel
The Mayor of Casterbridge, is certainly
McCabe & Mrs. Milleresque. In a good way. I love Sarah Polley in that movie. Nastassja Kinski and Peter Mullan, too. Great cinematography by Alwin H. Kuchler (
Morvern Callar, Proof).
I like Winterbottom, he's a good filmmaker. And his films vary quite a bit in subject matter and style from piece to piece, kind of like Alan Parker in that regard.
24 Hour Party People is probably the best-known of his stuff, and it's very good. Also check out
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story,
Wonderland (1999),
Welcome to Sarajevo,
Code 46 and
Jude (a good, moody adaptation of Hardy's
Jude the Obscure starring Chris Eccleston, Kate Winslet and Rachel Griffiths).
He's got a rather mainstream awards-bait project coming up later this year:
A Mighty Heart with Angelina Jolie as the widow of Daniel Pearl, the
Wall Street Journal reporter who was kindapped in Pakistan and executed by Al Qaeda.