Jude (1996)
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw
Grade: B- // Worth a Matinee
(Gramercy)
Director: Michael Winterbottom. Screenplay: Hossein Amini. Director of Photography: Eduardo Serra. Producer: Andrew Eaton.
MPAA Rating: R (sexual situations, nudity, violence) Running Time: 121 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
If JUDE strikes you as not at all typical of what you expect when you think about films based on "classic British novels," it is only because it is quite faithful to its source material in its subject matter. Thomas Hardy's _Jude the Obscure_ was one of the most controversial novels of its time, one which inspired outraged reaction against its portrayal of adultery, atheism and marital sexuality. JUDE's still-relevant theme of the consequences of non-conformity make it a natural for cinematic treatment, and Michael Winterbottom has directed a beautifully filmed and beautifully acted adaptation. It is somewhat unfortunate, then, that JUDE is so true to the narrative thrust of Hardy's novel yet falls short in plumbing its thematic depths.
Christopher Eccleston stars as Jude Fawley, a working class Englishman of the late 1890s who is inspired by his schoolmaster Richard Phillotson (Liam Cunningham) to dreams of becoming university-educated. While teaching himself the classics, Jude works as a stone-mason, but he is distracted from his plans by Arabella (Rachel Griffiths), a farmer's daughter he marries when he believes he has gotten her pregnant. The marriage is not made in heaven, however, and Arabella leaves Jude, allowing him to return to his educational pursuits in the university town of Christminster. There Jude meets his cousin Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet), a beautiful but highly unconventional young woman who becomes Jude's close friend. The friendship grows into something more, but the circumstances of their lives contrive to keep them apart, and produce terrible consequences when they reject societal expectations.
It is often a kind of critical laziness to tick off discrepancies between a film and its source material, but in the case of JUDE certain omissions create gaps of logic. Hossein Amini's script does a largely superb job of selecting where to condense scenes and delete sub-plots, losing little relevant narrative information, but there are problems with the development of character motivations. Both Arabella and Phillotson are reduced to minor supporting players, and we don't understand enough about what their decisions mean to the story. One pivotal sequence focuses on Jude's young son, who acts in a manner dependent on Hardy's characterization of him as almost supernaturally mature and fatalistic. Ross Colvin Turnbull, the young actor who plays Little Jude, can't quite muster that quality, and his actions, while startling, don't seem plausible. Lost also are many of the contradictory facets of Sue's personality, particularly her almost phobic aversion to sex. Hardy's Sue jumps out a window to avoid sleeping with her husband; Kate Winslet's Sue becomes Jude's lover in a scene which is played almost as comic.
That is not to slight Winslet's performance, which is captivating. She makes Sue a vibrant, intelligent object of desire, a woman who refuses to accept the roles anyone else imposes on her, and the force of her spirit makes her fate all the more tragic. Eccleston is impressive as well as Jude, whose pursuit of his dreams results in a series of disappointments but not in the breaking of his will. Both are well directed by Winterbottom, who gives JUDE a kinetic energy, though his rush to include all the critical events in the story might leave you a bit dizzy. Also outstanding is the cinematography of Eduardo Serra, both in the stark black-and-white of the prologue and in the muted colors of the body of the film.
JUDE is certainly effective film-making, but it could have been more _affecting_. This is a story of people challenging the social order at their own peril, and once Winterbottom establishes that fact, JUDE is quite compelling. It simply takes a terribly long time for him to establish that fact, and as a result JUDE is an appealing but fairly conventional star-crossed love story for much of its two hours. Winslet and Eccleston are always able to make you care about whether or not Sue and Jude will find happiness, but Amini and Winterbottom should have been able to build the understanding that it was impossible. There are enough powerful moments and intriguing performances in JUDE to hold your interest, and the story still feels daring a century removed from its publication. There is just that small missing link that leaves JUDE's fundamental tragedy a bit too obscure.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 faint Hardys: 6.
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