Jude *** (1997, Christopher Eccleston, Kate Winslet) – Classic Movie Review 1696

A lugubrious-looking Christopher Eccleston is hugely gloomy in director Michael Winterbottom’s depressingly downbeat 1997 film version of the Thomas Hardy tragic romance yarn Jude the Obscure.

Lovestruck stonemason Jude Fawley (Eccleston) pursues his cousin, Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet), with tragic consequences, eventually living together, poverty-stricken, downcast and shunned by a society who disapprove that they’re not married. The film is honourable and true to the spirit of the novel, but it is a bit of a plod, and it doesn’t help that it’s visually very dark too in Eduardo Serra’s moody, but sleep-inducing cinematography.

Both star players are well cast and give ideal performances. Liam Cunningham (as Phillotson), Rachel Griffiths (Arabella Down), June Whitfield (in a serious role as Aunt Drusilla), James Nesbitt (Uncle Joe), Paul Copely, Ken Jones and Dexter Fletcher co-star, and everybody hits exactly the right notes.

But, good though it is, it’s probably nobody’s idea of a good night out – or in.

Hossein Amini writes the intelligent screenplay adapting Thomas Hardy‘s novel.

The BBC’s earlier 1971 miniseries version with the full title of Jude the Obscure stars an excellent Robert Powell and Fiona Walker.

A film of Hardy’s novel The Woodlanders followed in 1997.

http://derekwinnert.com/the-woodlanders-1995-emily-woof-rufus-sewell-classic-movie-review-1688/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1696

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