Plot
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 an abusive nobleman...

Release Year: 1996

Rating: 7.0/10 (5,904 voted)

Critic's Score: 68/100

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Stars: Christopher Eccleston, Kate Winslet, Liam Cunningham

Storyline
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 an abusive nobleman. Living out of wedlock, the two are rejected by the townspeople leaving them to struggle in abject poverty.

Writers: Hossein Amini, Thomas Hardy

Cast:
Christopher Eccleston - Jude Fawley
Kate Winslet - Sue Bridehead
Liam Cunningham - Phillotson
Rachel Griffiths - Arabella
June Whitfield - Aunt Drusilla
Ross Colvin Turnbull - Little Jude
James Daley - Jude as a Boy
Berwick Kaler - Farmer Troutham
Sean McKenzie - 1st Stone Mason
Richard Albrecht - 2nd Stone Mason
Caitlin Bossley - Anny
Emma Turner - Sarah
Lorraine Hilton - Shopkeeper
James Nesbitt - Uncle Joe
Mark Lambert - Tinker Taylor

Taglines: A time without pity. A society without mercy. A love without equal.

Release Date: 18 October 1996

Filming Locations: Beamish Open Air Museum, Beamish, County Durham, England, UK

Box Office Details

Budget: $7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $31,850 (USA) (20 October 1996) (6 Screens)

Gross: $405,144 (USA) (22 December 1996)

Runtime: 123 min  | Germany: 118 min (TV version)

Trivia:
Christopher Eccleston (Jude Fawley) and David Tennant (Drunk Undergraduate) both later portrayed the Doctor in Doctor Who. The former played the Ninth Doctor from March to June 2005 while the latter played the Tenth Doctor from June 2005 to January 2010.

Quotes:
Sue: Haven't we been punished enough?

A naturalistic tragedy of immense proportions

Rating: 10/10

I started watching this movie after having read the viewers' comments, so I was prepared for the depression inducing effect everyone kept talking about. Seems like you are never prepared enough for this movie. Sadness and tragedy are in the air right from beginning, you can feel them all the time, even when things start getting better for the two protagonists you know it can't last...because they are doomed, losers, not meant to be happy together. And yet the love they share is the purest and most devoting love I have ever seen on screen; it stunned me how true Jude was to Sue, and how brave Sue was, accepting Jude jr. as one of her own, no questions asked. Many people might find the scene of Sue giving birth and being watched by Jude jr. disturbing, yet it is essential to understand his later deeds, at least partly. The climax of the tragedy is so emotional and so immensely cruel it rips your heart out. I felt the theatre was falling into pieces and so were we, watching this emotional tornado, weeping like possessed. The experience of this movie will make you ponder life, love and death, it will make you understand how important it is to teach your children well and never make them feel undesired. It will make you realize how important it is to always think twice before commiting yourself, even in the modern world flooded with divorces. It will show you what it means to really love, completely and uncompromisingly. I highly recommend this masterpiece, a tale of two beautiful, unfortunate heros ahead their time, doomed by cruelest fate imaginable. 10/10

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