Best movie of this year hands down!

Please don't spend money on this.

Let's be realistic.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Perhaps I'm missing some deeper meaning here, but this movie is just outright depressing in every way possible. It features depravity after depravity and at every turn the main characters are dealt an even worse hand.Want to see a movie about depressed, depraved characters with graphic depictions of...Unwed barnyard copulation? A mother abandoning her child to live with his father? Cousin relationships with children? The most disturbingly realistic childbirth you'll ever see on film (with crowning even)? Depressed child suicide/homicide of other children?...all with no message or uplifting ending? Then watch Jude. Seriously, I think back at this movie regularly not because I loved it, but because I'm still scarred at how horribly depressing it all was.It was shot okay and it is fairly competent at its storytelling, but the story and happenings in it are just meaningless depravity and depression. Who would want to subject themselves to that?Not recommended.

It's an excellent movie because it scores in each corner: it has a wonderful, gripping story that can speaks to anyone with heart. As it's an adaptation, you will be interested in reading the novel. Beyond the personal drama, I remember two scandals that are always verified today: 1) education is elitist as it expels those who don't have pedigree 2) Christian congregation is highly hypocritical as they achieve to turn a message of love into one of rejection. It has wonderful locations, between the green pastures and the austere British cities (for those who have seen Spielberg's "War Horse", it has the same ambiance). Winterbottom is inspired to fill his frames and Johnston's soundtrack is just one of the best ever as it gives such poetry to the pictures. As for the cast, it's just an amazing reunion: Eccleston finds his career pick as his Jude is such a good man: always sincere, hardworking, caring, sometimes sad but never quits! Kate is always fascinating by her precocity and by her personal choices for free- spirited characters!

This film tells the story of a boy who from his childhood dreamed of becoming more. He hopes to leave the brutal rural world of pig-slaughtering and rolls in the hay for the intellectual world of the university, which to him represents the freedom to think one's own thoughts and to live one's own life.Sadly, his conduct and, more importantly, his opportunities cannot bear his aspirations. When faced with a "pregnant" girlfriend, he marries her, as any "good" man should. When faced with mockery from wealthy undergraduates (a scene all the more odd because it pits two Doctor Who's against each other), Jude tries to prove his intelligence by reciting Latin in a pub, realizing in the end that no matter how much Latin he studies he will always be a laborer to these people. He becomes infatuated by his free-thinking cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is similarly pursuing education and independence and who also rejects Victorian conventionalities about women belonging in the home.Sadly, the two cousins find that they cannot reject the values of their world without dire consequences, for them and for their children.Happily, this film beautifully depicts Sue and Jude's struggles in gorgeous shots of the landscape and rich images of the two leads. Christopher Eccleston gives Jude a warm humanity and Kate Winslet creates a Sue Bridehead whom we easily believe could both rebel against social custom and also be crushed by it. I particularly liked the depiction of the harshness of Victorian life: the working in the rain, the beatings, the cruelty to animals, the pain of childbirth, the lack of privacy endured by poor families. The film is not Masterpiece Theatre (no criticism just a comment on style) and shows us clearly what the university means to Jude and just what he is trying to escape.If you liked "The Remains of the Day," "The Age of Innocence," "Tess" or "The Idiot" (book, I've never seen a film of this), you will appreciate this film and the book, as well.

Jude Fawley(Christopher Eccleston) lives in a small agricultural town. He is a stonemason who aspires to a higher education level and to go to the university. He marries his childhood sweetheart, but it soon appears that it was wrong from the beginning. She had tricked him into the marriage thinking she was pregnant. They split, he goes to a nearby city and she goes elsewhere. In the new city, he meets his cousin Sue(Kate Winslet), with whom he becomes enthralled with. They both know the relationship is impossible, so they arrange a marriage to a professor(Liam Cunningham) at the university Jude hopes to go to. Within 6 months, the marriage is over and Sue asks for a divorce so she can be with Jude. Her husband says, no. Sue leaves him anyway and she and Jude begin to live together. Their life is the life of abject poverty. At one point they have to auction off their possessions to pay the bills. When people find out they aren't married and have 3 children, he loses his job and they must move on. In the end due to a terrible tragedy, Jude and Sue are separated permanently, though they are still in love and still married to each other's hearts.This is a brutal, realistic film. Thomas Hardy wrote it in the 19th century, but the topic is relevant today. I think just about everyone knows someone or a family that is homeless, had to go bankrupt, had cars repossessed, had to hawk their possession, had to take on 2 or more jobs. I think I've made my point. Having children would have made all of the above worse.All the actors were brilliant, but I must pick two out especially. Christopher Eccleston plays Jude simply as though he knew him. That, in his mind, Jude may have lived down the street from him. The second is also called Jude played by Ross Colvin Turnball. He played Jude's son of the woman he married. She had gotten pregnant after they were married. Jude never knew he had a son with her. This young actor has tremendous presence. Turnball also played his character simply. He could have been the boy he pretended to be.BEWARE: Because it is very realistic, it has an "R" rating with nudity, sexual situations and an adult subject matter. I wouldn't recommend this film for anyone below the age of 17.