Jude
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Movie Reviews of Jude
Movie Review: Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Watched this movie last week. I was amazed with its power, influence, and disturbance. It was still with me, now. There were some scenes (i.e. animal cruelty, ) I disliked. But they partially strengthened the movie. I watched it with surprises and depression, but I like it because c' est la vie.Movie Review: Social Shocker
Summary: 4 Stars
Michael Winterbottom who directed "Welcome to Sarajevo" & "Butterfly Kiss" helmed this project that sank like a stone at the box office. Thomas Hardy's last novel "Jude the Obscure" was so poorly received that he didn't write another. But the thing about good period piece adaptations is that they remain interesting long after their initial release. This 1996 film is no different in its DVD release.
As the brooding Jude Fawley Christopher Eccleston who was in "28 Days Later" & "The Others" with Nicole Kidman does a good job with the many emotional layers of this character. Born in the lower class, he longed to be educated. But his hormones cause him to marry Arabella in an ill-fated arrangement. Then his attraction to his cousin and his dedication to their illicit love are entrancing.
Australian actress Rachel Griffiths from the "Six Feet Under" TV series and who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for "Hillary & Jackie" does a good job in the part of Jude's wife Arrabella. The character in the screenplay seems not well fleshed. We're not totally sure why the two break off.
Kate Winslett with her 3 Oscar nominations ("Sense & Sensibility," "The Titantic," & "Iris") is a vivid actress upon whose face a range of emotions and nuances are reflected. As Jude's cousin Sue, she is a feminist prototype. We watch her aversion to religion and then her embrace of it after the death of her children in amazement as the actress covers such range.
At Jude's urging, Sue marries schoolteacher Phillotson, but it is a loveless affair. Liam Cunningham plays Phillotson excellently and delicately. His affection for Sue is as delightful as it unrequited.
Eduardo Serra did the cinematography as he did for "Beyond the Sea," "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Widow of Saint-Pierre." The look of the film is exquisite and lyrical.
Thomas Hardy's story is hardly the social shocker it was in its day. However, the violence to the children is so tragic that it leaves the viewer drained and disappointed. In the end, this is a valuable picture filled with excellent performances and a classic story. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Since I became a mother, I can't watch this movie
Summary: 4 Stars
This is has got to be the most depressing movie I've ever watched. I own a copy of the movie, and I have viewed it at least five times since purchasing it. My husband refuses to ever watch it, and there is no way I'd let my young children watch it. Honestly, I thought about getting rid of the movie, but I couldn't. So now, it sits in the back of our entertainment armoire. I can't even recommend it or loan it to friends as they will think I am off my rocker for watching such a depressing movie more than once.But obviously, I can't part with it, and I have seen it more than once. So there is something magnetic about it. I think Eccleston and Winslet give great performances. . . Some say Winslet is better in her part, but perhaps it is the role of Sue that is supposed to sparkle next to the dull existence of Jude? Sue is the bit of brightness, and Jude is lured to her because of that sparkle. . . He is supposed to be stable and dull in contrast to her ever-changing whims of passion. I would not say that Winslet is the only bright spot in the way of acting in this movie. Eccleston does a stellar job (not over-doing and not under-doing, a balance, I'd say), and it's somewhat sad that he seems to be typecast into "evil" guy roles because he doesn't look like your run of the mill Tom Cruise or the next "hot" Hollywood guy.
The mood is as hopeless and dreary as Hardy's original novel thanks to cinematography and the musical score. . . Was Hardy really so down on women and life as it is?
I'm not sure it's a good thing or a bad thing, but this movie leaves me feeling unsettled in a dreary sort of way.
This is not a lighthearted movie, and it makes 'Titanic' look like a comedy. So if you're out to get this to see Kate Winslet in the buff in it, you are going to be very disappointed with seeing her giving birth with a "prosthetic" birth canal and all. This is not for the faint of heart or those just in search of a "love story". It's very graphic. . . children hanging, hogs butchered, hearts broken, baby's being born. . .
Movie Review: A passionate, lively interpretation of a depressing tale
Summary: 4 Stars
Michael Winterbottom's Jude tells the tale of an impoverished British youth (Christopher Eccleston- the dead husband in "The Others) who self-educates and aspires to be a scholar. Along this quest, he impregates a fling (Rachel Griffiths of Six Feet Under fame) moves to a college town, works as a stone mason, and falls in love at first sight with his cousin Sue (Kate Winslet). The main reason to see this film is for the chemistry between Eccleston and Winslet. Eccleston makes you feel sympathy for Jude from the moment we see him onscreen as a young man, vital since so much of the novel "Jude the Obscure" was about making us root for this considerate, intelligent man only to put him through utter hell as to illustrate the unfairness of the British class system. Eccleston's heartfelt and sincere performance exposes the vapidity of most Hollywood actors and is genuinely inspiring for the craft of acting. As Sue, Kate Winslet proves again, after Heavenly Creatures, Sense and Sensibility, and yes Titanic that she is one of the most fetching, watchable actresses of her time. It's not hard at all to see why Jude is so hopelessly in love with her. In fact, this film contains one of the best onscreen romances I've seen in a while. The passion of these two characters are so vivid that when the hard unredemptive ending happens, I had to convince myself that it was a fictional story to gain peace of mind. See it and be moved.Movie Review: because we are too many...
Summary: 4 Stars
The packaging for this DVD would make the casual shopper think they are about to watch a warm and touching costume epic. What you get instead is a raw, bleak period piece that touches on emotional areas seldom seen in modern film. Always engaging, never sugar-coated, well-acted (Winslet and Eccleston are perfectly cast), and stripped of most manipulative Hollywood tactics, this is a perfect rainy-day film, though certainly not for children.
Sensual but without overly-gushing romantic cliches, and with some very raw moments of pain and emotional collapse, I could not take my eyes off of this film.
Though I won't give away any plot details, there is a scene in a church where Eccleston begs Winslet to say she loves him, and I remember thinking there haven't been too many scenes like this which depict such desperate moments, played so well. Reaching a moment where it looks as if the characters may find peace, it instead plunges straight into the abyss, and ends in a painful moment where against all odds, Jude remains true to himself and his own feelings about what is right and wrong.
Solid on a technical level; good photography, music, directing, and with a story about two people the viewer can really care about, this is a film I will watch more than a few times.