Nonureva Really Surprised!

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Amy Adler In late 19th century Britain, Jude (Christopher Eccleston) is a conundrum. Born to a poor family, he nevertheless loves scholarly pursuits. A kind teacher tells him that not far from his pastoral village, the great city of Christminster is the way to academic success. Jude decides at once he wants this, desperately. However, in the meanwhile, by chance, a farmer's daughter, Arabella (Rachel Griffiths) spies him and wants him for herself. Throwing Jude's ambitions off course, Arabella says she is pregnant and a wedding follows soon after. It's a dismal match. What's more, Arabella's pregnancy doesn't advance. After a horrendous winter night, when Arabella insists they slaughter a pig and dress it, Jude has had enough. He departs for Christminster. Yet, the hallowed walls of higher learning are not made for the poor folks, alas. Jude finds work as a stonemason in the meanwhile, but when he applies to the college, he is rejected, despite his evident knowledge of the classics. This young man is in despair. However, his attentions are soon diverted by an introduction to his long lost cousin, Sue (Kate Winslet). The two are mates immediately, loving the same subjects and living life not quite by the rules. This results in Sue losing her calligraphy job but Jude helps find her another one, a teaching position. Yet, when Jude confesses he is married, Sue rushes to tie the knot with the senior teacher at the school. Now, BOTH OF THEM, are married to a partner they don't love. Yet, these two can't stay away from each other. Eventually, Sue leaves her husband for Jude and the two traverse other towns, pretending to be man and wife. Somehow, they are always found out. In addition, they become the parents of three children, making their lives difficult. What will become of them, these two whose strong ambitions receive society's slaps in their faces? This majestically sad classic from Hardy will probably never be put to the screen as well as it is here. First, Eccleston and Winslet are perfection in difficult roles while the secondary actors are very fine, too. Then, the scenery and costumes are superb. One really believes they have been transported back to an earlier time. Then, too, the director Michael Winterbottom presents many beautiful scenes; one is the "seaweed stalk" fight that Jude and Sue have on the beach in happy times. Beware, however, there is full frontal nudity from Winslet and other bold sexual scenes. Most importantly, Hardy's conflicting themes are made for heavy ponderings. What is good and what is evil? Are conventions to be kept or broken? Is God a lovely father or a punishing taskmaster? One will not come away from this movie without being asked to answer these questions that are truly impossible. If you are a thoughtful film goer who loves the best in cinema, you would be very amiss to miss Jude.

SnoopyStyle Jude Fawley (Christopher Eccleston) comes from a lower class rural village. He aspires to be educated but is a simple stonemason. He marries country girl Arabella (Rachel Griffiths) thinking she's pregnant. Jude is wrong for the country life and Arabella departs for Australia claiming that she thought she was pregnant and did not trick him. Jude goes off to Christminster where he hopes to go to the university. He is taken by cousin Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet). The university rejects him and Sue refuses him after he reveals that he's married. She marries the religious Phillotson (Liam Cunningham) but it's a loveless marriage. She and Jude go off together in a life of struggle. Arabella sends him Juey who she claims is his. Jude and Sue have two more children together but their common-law relationship causes problems and ends in tragedy.Director Michael Winterbottom brings some life to this difficult story. He could have made this darker and moodier. He could have played up the star-crossed lovers. He could also put the social structure much more out front. He is blessed with two great actors. Eccleston and Winslet are terrific. This is a fine romantic epic.

withnail-4 What kind of person is Jude? does he have a love for Latin? Does he really want to be a scholar? What does he think of his wife Arabella? what is she like? Are we supposed to like her, dislike her? because...? because she is sensual? earthy? Is she too ignorant to be a good wife for Jude? Is Jude Smart? We see them have sex..and this means..? Not one scene has any development. Guy walks around in the rain, somebody tells a boy that education is everything...Is this Jude our hero? He is shown trying to memorize some Latin. How far has he progressed ...what does Classical literature mean to him? The viewer's emotions are not guided toward any coherent response ...scenes begin and end without discernible intention.Lazy, incompetent film directing. Not thought through. Watch a film Like Hobson's Choice by David Lean, in comparison, and appreciate how every image, gesture, every object, conveys thoughts, character, intentions. Someone intelligent sat down and thought through what to show and how. Scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends and meanings and direction. This film is, by contrast, a lazy, stupidly unrealized piece of incompetence. Kate Winslet's performance, and the beauty of the locations are the only positive parts.

newradical336 did anyone notice as I did the use of Edinburgh for the town of, I think Christchurch, or some made up place where Jude goes to pursue university? Being home that I miss often i instantly recognised most of the scenes there as being filmed on the Royal Mile in the old town and directly around the square in front of St Giles. Also all the churchyard scenes, including their children's graves was in Greyfriars Churchyard nearby. i found it interseting why theyd give it a false name, furthered by the fact that in the scene in which Jude follows Sue into a public meeting in a hall the man speaking almost seems to be discussing the divide between "the new town" and "the old" which anyone who's visited Edinburgh will be well aware almost splits the town in two, the rich and the poor. the new town being visible in the film in scenes such as following the children's death and Sue's departure Jude follows her to an anonymous house before she returns to the church, I think its just below Queen Street. Where was that supposed to be by the way? Just happened to catch the film while flicking last night and thought it was ace, harrowing, but rewarding nonehteless.