There hasn’t been an actor playing this “against type” since Bill Murray as FDR. In Dom Hemingway Jude Law stars as a blustery Cockney smart-ass safe-cracker with bad teeth and a few extra pounds on his gut. Law, usually solidly cerebral (the excellent Side Effects, Anna Karenina), here is big on balls and small on conventional wisdom of any sort. His mouth utters few words that wouldn’t be considered cursing. His near-suicidal fearlessness seems to possess its own private echo chamber.
Bringing to mind neither the literary giant nor the champagne of his namesake, Dom Hemingway gets out of jail after 12 years after refusing to rat on his criminal boss. Then Dom promptly scurries over to the workplace of the man who married his former wife and beats him to a pulp. Pulverizing her stepfather may not be the best way to get in the good graces of his estranged daughter, but Dom doesn’t think much about consequences.
Yet there remains something likable about Dom. Maybe it’s his crazy sense of humor or could it just be our rooting for Law as he gives a bravura performance in the face of an what starts out as an often mediocre script. Dom is always pissed off. Director and Writer Richard Shepard (The Matador) is often trying too hard to be outrageous; Law seems to be having a lot of fun keeping up. When he tells off that same very powerful man (Demian Bichir) he went to jail for, the sheer bombast of his bluntness stuns us.
As Law continues to surprise, Shepard too, surprises the viewer with a last third that sees his teetering plot suddenly solidly jelling. What could have been a maudlin turn once Law makes an extra effort at rapprochement with his daughter (Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones), actually works thanks in no small part to a terrific performance by Law’s grandchild (Jordan A. Nash). Dom Hemingway’s scattershot playfulness finally earns its own payoff. Just when he seems a goner, Dom finds a new underworld power figure to insult and challenge. How can we not root for an underdog who, however flawed, is as certifiably crazy and brazen as this maniac?
3.5 Grumbling, Excessively Agitated Loop Jobs (out of 5 stars)