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Jude (1996)
The first of Michael Winterbottom’s Hardy adaptations, Jude removes most of ‘the obscure’ from the content as well as the title, which is no bad thing. A stripped down version of the novel, Jude does away with Hardy’s political ranting about marriage to concentrate on the eponymous hero, a stonemason with dreams of going to university in Christminster and his doomed relationship with his cousin, Sue Bridehead.
The relationship is not unlike the forbidden relationship explored in Winterbottom’s 2003 film, Code 46, but slightly more successful, mostly due to strong performances from the leads, Christpher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. Eccleston, always good value, effectively conveys Jude’s descent from optimism to despair as he loses everything he loves and hopes for in his life. Winslet is convincing in a difficult role as the free-spirited, odd Sue who eventually succumbs to a religious mania brought on by grief.
It is a solid enough film, but can’t quite seem to decide whether it wants to be modern and edgy in feel, or a traditional costume drama, and gritty scenes are undermined by a slowing down in pace and traditional music. A small point, but although the deaths of animals and the birth scene are horribly realistic, the dead children did not all look realistic, which took away some of the impact of that scene.
If there is one thing you can expect from a Michael Winterbottom film (and his films are so diverse in other respects it is perhaps the only constant), it is frank nudity and sex scenes. These are present and correct in Jude, although the question of Sue's sexual relationship with her husband is skimmed over.
The ending felt too abrupt, although after the wallow in misery the final part of the film becomes, it is not entirely unwelcome. In the end, the biggest problem with the film is simply the story itself.
And finally…Jude is also notable for a scene in which both the most recent Dr. Who’s are on screen together, Eccleston joined in a bar scene by David Tennant playing a ‘drunk undergraduate’!
3.5/5
The first of Michael Winterbottom’s Hardy adaptations, Jude removes most of ‘the obscure’ from the content as well as the title, which is no bad thing. A stripped down version of the novel, Jude does away with Hardy’s political ranting about marriage to concentrate on the eponymous hero, a stonemason with dreams of going to university in Christminster and his doomed relationship with his cousin, Sue Bridehead.
The relationship is not unlike the forbidden relationship explored in Winterbottom’s 2003 film, Code 46, but slightly more successful, mostly due to strong performances from the leads, Christpher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. Eccleston, always good value, effectively conveys Jude’s descent from optimism to despair as he loses everything he loves and hopes for in his life. Winslet is convincing in a difficult role as the free-spirited, odd Sue who eventually succumbs to a religious mania brought on by grief.
It is a solid enough film, but can’t quite seem to decide whether it wants to be modern and edgy in feel, or a traditional costume drama, and gritty scenes are undermined by a slowing down in pace and traditional music. A small point, but although the deaths of animals and the birth scene are horribly realistic, the dead children did not all look realistic, which took away some of the impact of that scene.
If there is one thing you can expect from a Michael Winterbottom film (and his films are so diverse in other respects it is perhaps the only constant), it is frank nudity and sex scenes. These are present and correct in Jude, although the question of Sue's sexual relationship with her husband is skimmed over.
The ending felt too abrupt, although after the wallow in misery the final part of the film becomes, it is not entirely unwelcome. In the end, the biggest problem with the film is simply the story itself.
And finally…Jude is also notable for a scene in which both the most recent Dr. Who’s are on screen together, Eccleston joined in a bar scene by David Tennant playing a ‘drunk undergraduate’!
3.5/5