Jude (Blu-ray)

From acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, Wonderland) and writer Hossein Amini (The Wings of the Dove, Drive) comes this bold and sweeping adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. Jude Fawley (an extraordinary Christopher Eccleston, Shallow Grave, TV’s Doctor Who) is a stonemason with a passion for learning. After a brief but unhappy marriage to the daughter of a local pig farmer, he moves to Christminster to be closer to his beloved scholars. There, he meets and falls totally in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead (a dazzling Kate Winslet, Sense and Sensibility, Titanic), a thoroughly modern young woman, whose wit and beauty captivate him. When they join in an illicit union that flouts society’s conventions, fate takes a tragic turn. Featuring Liam Cunningham (TV’s Game of Thrones) and Rachel Griffiths (Muriel’s Wedding), Jude is a mesmerizing romantic drama that explores themes of class, education, religion, marriage and morality in Victorian England.