Jude

Another movie I didn't see all the way through, but had seen before. I watched it mainly for the cast. I'm a Doctor Who fan, and wanted to see Christopher Eccleston. Imagine my surprise to find a scene that not only featured him but David Tennant as well! Anyway, back to the movie - the story was almost shocking by today's standards. It is no longer acceptable to fall in love with a cousin, let alone have children with one! Jude and Sue had such a connection though, that it was hard to believe they weren't soulmates. More likely though, they were just two intelligent people who were living before their time. It was more of a problem that they weren't husband and wife, than the fact that they were cousins.

What happens when Jude's young son takes it upon himself to alleviate the problem of the family being too large, is unforgettable! There were some shocking scenes in this movie, no doubt about that! It was even more shocking the way they were placed in what at first appeared to be merely a period love story. Christopher Eccleston & Kate Winslet were enough to make this film special, but the twists in the story took it one step further.

Sense & Sensibility

Another Jane Austen story. And one I had seen a few times before, as well as having read the book. Like Pride & Prejudice, many of the characters from the book were not in the movie. But there were too many extraneous characters in the book, making it hard to keep track of them all. I liked this story very much. The costumes & scenery were great, but I wasn't thrilled with the casting. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay & it was wonderful, but I just couldn't buy her as playing a girl who was supposed to be 19 years old. She looked great for someone in her mid-30's, but let's fact it, was not believable as a teenager! Kate Winslet was much closer to the age of the character she played, but still seemed too old to be playing a 16 year old. If you can look past that, they played the parts well.

I liked Hugh Grant's portrayal of Edward Ferrars, but the movie version of his character was made to seem much less involved with Lucy Steele, whereby allowing him to be more likable than he probably should have been. All in all, a classic Jane Austen happy ending romance, and I can never get enough of them!