A stonemason steadfastly pursues a cousin he loves. However their love is troubled as he is married to a woman who tricked him into marriage and she is married to a man she does not love.
In late 19th-century England, Jude aspires to be an academic, but is hobbled by his blue-collar background. Instead, he works as a stonemason and is trapped in an unloving marriage to a farmer’s daughter named Arabella. But when his wife leaves him, Jude sees an opportunity to improve himself. He moves to the city and begins an affair with his married cousin, Sue, courting tragedy every step of the way.
Based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude the Obscure, the British period drama remaining quite true to the tone and narrative style of Hardy’s ultimate tragic novel.
“By consciously avoiding British frock-movie cliches, and adopting a fluid, almost Gallic approach to the narrative, young Brit helmer Michael Winterbottom has come up with a movie whose closest parallel in filmmaking style is, in fact, Truffaut’s several costume dramas.” – Variety
Starring Christopher Eccleston, Kate Winslet, Liam Cunningham, Rachel Griffiths.
Rated R