Kent and East Sussex Railway was used as a film location for the scenes where Jude (Christopher Eccleston) and Sue (Kate Winslet) are on a train which was intercut with scenery from the North of England. The production filmed in a variety of countries including France, New Zealand and the UK. After a passionate kiss, she walks away from Jude to return to Phillotson.Īs Sue walks away, Jude shouts to her, "We are man and wife, if ever two people were on this earth!" Cast Jude demands that Sue tell him whether she still loves him, to which she replies, "You've always known". She decides to return to Phillotson, although she finds him sexually repugnant, as he is her true husband in the eyes of God.Ī year after the death of their children, Jude and Sue happen to meet when separately visiting the tombstones of their children. Turning to the religion she previously rejected, Sue comes to believe that God has judged and punished the couple for not having married. His suicide note says the reason: "Becos we were to menny."Įach of the couple falls into a deep depression after the deaths of their children. The next day Sue and Jude return to their lodging to find that Juey has killed his half-siblings and committed suicide, hanging himself. Sue tells Juey that the family cannot stay long at their present lodging because there are too many of them.
Sue and Jude are forbidden a permanent rental lodging because their living arrangement without marriage is considered scandalous. The boy comes to live with his father Jude, Sue and his half-siblings. Jude learns that Arabella bore a son, which she named Jude ("Juey") soon after she left Jude. Agnostic and independent, she refuses to legalize their arrangement by marriage.
The two are in love and, over the course of years, Sue gives birth to two children. She leaves Phillotson to join Jude in what turns out to be a rough life, moving from place to place as Jude picks up occasional work as a stonemason. The marriage of Sue and Phillotson is not a success, as she refuses to give herself sexually or romantically to her husband. Meanwhile, Jude is rejected for the university based primarily on his lower-class status. Whilst Jude is enraptured by Sue, she decides to marry Jude's former school teacher, Phillotson (Cunningham), after Jude tells her he is married to Arabella. There he encounters his cousin, Sue Bridehead (Winslet), who is beautiful and intelligent, and shares his disdain for convention. He thinks education is available for any man who is willing to work hard. He remains true to his dream and, months later, after his wife's sudden departure, he heads for the city. Circumstances conspire against him, and he is forced into a job as a stonemason and an unhappy marriage to a country girl, Arabella (Griffiths). Still, it was nice to see both Rachel Griffith and Kate Winslet, even if the film was less than satisfactory.In the Victorian period, Jude Fawley (Eccleston) is a bright young lower-class man who dreams of a university education. One wonders why this film had to be made. Whether this was the fault of the filmmakers or is inherent to the novel is irrelevant. The defining tragedy here nearly broke this viewer's heart, but was telegraphed long before the actual events unfolded. 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. 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. This viewer felt as though this were the Cliff Notes version of Hardy's weighty tome. 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. Only because of Kate Winslet do I round this up to four stars.
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