Jude

Jude Fawley is a stonemason in nineteenth-century England who dreams of a university education, a goal that stays out of reach because of his working-class origins. His plans are disrupted when he becomes involved with Arabella, a farmer's daughter, and marries her; the marriage soon fails and she leaves the country. Jude moves to the university town of Christminster, where he supports himself by cutting stone and meets his cousin Sue Bridehead, a freethinking woman whose views set her apart from the conventions of the time. The two grow close, though Sue is married to Jude's former schoolmaster Phillotson, and their relationship brings them into conflict with the society around them.

Michael Winterbottom directed the film, the second of the fifteen features listed for him in chronological order, following Butterfly Kiss and preceding I Want You. Hossein Amini wrote the screenplay, and Andrew Eaton produced. Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure provides the source material, and the cast includes Christopher Eccleston as Jude, Kate Winslet as Sue, Liam Cunningham as Phillotson, Rachel Griffiths as Arabella, June Whitfield as Aunt Drusilla, and James Nesbitt as Uncle Joe, among twenty-nine credited performers and sixty-nine credited crew.

Made on a budget of about seven million dollars, the British production was released in 1996 and runs 123 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.9 from roughly 12,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.3 from a much smaller 153 votes. A critics' rating of 7.4 from forty reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.