JUDE
A film review by P-M Agapow
Copyright 1996 P-M Agapow
Adapted from the classic Thomas Hardy novel "Jude the Obscure": In the late 19th century young Jude Fawley (Eccleston) sets his mind upon becoming a scholar. However his working class background and two romances he is doomed to continually revisit - first with Arabella (Griffiths), an earthy working girl, and later with his cousin Sue (Winslet), a rebellious free spirit, - drag him away from this dream.
Two admissions to start with: (1) Having never read the Hardy novel, I cannot vouch for how close this is to the original. Comments in the publicity and the fact that Eccleston appears on the movie poster wearing a beard that he never has during the movie makes me suspect there may be wild divergences. (2) "Jude" is not a terrible movie. It is just terribly disappointing.
Ready for four hours of unmitigated misery? This is it. Admittedly the running-time is closer to two hours - it just feels longer - but "Jude" is an movie looking for a statement to make. Despite its protests that it weighs the questions of dreams versus realities and destiny versus chance, "Jude" the movie is like the life of its eponymous character: one long disappointment. Jude and Sue, his companion in misery for most of the film, do not so much rage against injustices as just lie down and let themselves be kicked to death. We do not need them to win, but to simply grind them down without respite is pointless. "Jude" has little emotion or message invested in it.
Conversely there is merit. After a series of period movies that stepped straight out of a postcard (or haberdashery), "Jude" looks like a un-glamorous portrayal of its times, from the torn edges of Jude's coat to the mud-splattered streets. Eccleston, looking almost anatomically gaunt, is a strangely charming lead with a subdued natural acting style. When he finally weeps at his misfortunes, his pain is palpable. The supporting actors give appealing performances, although Winslet is not nearly as luminous as she is in every other film she appears in. There is a nicely eerie soundtrack and the director shows a keen eye for capturing scenes from the bleak distances of farmland to the crowded interiors of urband gaslight.
But the bottom line is - why see a film that has nothing to say? What it really lacks is a sense of not pace but urgency, an sense that it is going somewhere or say something. Put it this way - if you were watching this one on TV, after a hour you'd be channel-surfing between tragedies. [*/misfire] and a ski holiday without snow on the Sid and Nancy scale.
"Jude" Directed by Michael Winterbottom >From "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy. Starring Christopher Eccleston, Kate Winslet, Rachel Griffiths. Released 1996.
------ paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]
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