Jude (1996)
Movie Info
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Cast
as Jude Fawley
as Sue Bridehead
as Phillotson
as Arabella
as Aunt Drusilla
as Little Jude
as Drunk Undergraduate
as Farmer Troutham
as Anny
News & Interviews for Jude
Critic Reviews for Jude
All Critics (36) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (7) | DVD (1)
It's worth seeing Jude, a stark adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, just for the extraordinary performance of Christopher Eccleston as Jude Fawley.
Young English actress Kate Winslet adds luster and energy to Jude, a bold and generally successful attempt to adapt Thomas Hardy's final novel, Jude the Obscure, to the bigscreen.
Without the benefit of Hardy's prose, the point of the movie is lost in the grim, grayish ether.
Ambitious, sensitive, but ultimately uninvolving.
Jude remains a handsome if gravely flawed film.
The dark, steel engraving look that cinematographer Eduardo Serra has given Jude endows it with a somber magnificence.
Audience Reviews for Jude
Only because of Kate Winslet do I round this up to four stars. One of the strongest actors working in film today, she is radiantly beautiful, even in this overpoweringly sad adaptation of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. This viewer felt as though this were the Cliff Notes version of Hardy's weighty tome. So much of this seemed glossed over, with Jude's (Christopher Eccleston) seduction by, marriage to, and separation from Arabella (Rachel Griffith) taking place in the first ten minutes. The whole film came off that way. Maybe this suffers from comparison to the last film this viewer watched (and reviewed) which chose an entirely different approach to a long novel and achieved a brilliant result. The defining tragedy here nearly broke this viewer's heart, but was telegraphed long before the actual events unfolded. Whether this was the fault of the filmmakers or is inherent to the novel is irrelevant. One wonders why this film had to be made. Still, it was nice to see both Rachel Griffith and Kate Winslet, even if the film was less than satisfactory.
Super Reviewer
Dry and a rather borefest, worth watching only for Kate Winslet's naked body.
Super Reviewer
meh. It was really sad. the film felt squashed together and I felt that they made things difficult for themselves. It is very hard for me to believe that it would be this hard to be together.
Super Reviewer
Jude Quotes
| Jude Fawley: | We are man and wife, if ever two people were on this earth. |