68
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasMichael Winterbottom's handsome, uncompromising film. Jude glows with Eccleston's and Winslet's performances and with those in supporting roles.
- 90TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissA careful, finally powerful film.
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThis is a film of tremendous scope and emotional depth that uncovers the soul of a novel and brings it to life on the screen.
- 80EmpireEmpireA brave, powerful, far from comfortable and distinctly English affair that bears all the hallmarks of a labour of love rather than an example of intellectual folly.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertTogether [Christopher Eccleston, Rachel Griffiths and Kate Winslet] stake a difficult story and make it into a haunting film.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumIt's worth seeing this stark adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure just for the extraordinary performance of Christopher Eccleston as Jude Fawley, the stonemason in turn-of-the-century England whose dreams of university scholarship are thwarted. And British telly director Michael Winterbottom sustains a fine atmosphere of dank misery.
- 75San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSan Francisco ChroniclePeter StackJude is knockout Hardy, filled with stormy visual poetry and accompanied by a gorgeous yet simple score.
- 67Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisDirector Winterbottom and screenwriter Hossein Amini could have given the story a bit more resonance, particularly in character development, if they had allowed some of the scenes to go a little longer.
- 60The New York TimesLawrence Van GelderThe New York TimesLawrence Van GelderWith Christopher Eccleston as Jude and Kate Winslet of ''Sense and Sensibility'' as his great love, Sue Bridehead, and with convincing evocations of 19th-century England from locations in Edinburgh and the north of England, Jude remains a handsome if gravely flawed film.
- 25Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe basic plot of Thomas Hardy's great novel "Jude the Obscure" comes through accurately enough, but its sublime irony and sardonic wit apparently got lost in the misty English countryside.