Dom Hemingway

Richard Shepherd's latest film is a maelstrom of bad behaviour in the best style of British crime comedies - it's impossible to not liken it to Guy Ritchie and his ilk - but this one stands out from the crowd as it features a stunning performance from Jude Law - he may have started his career with man in touch with his feminine qualities but here he is the full monty as the mockney gangster on steroids. Law cannot be accused of a lack of a commitment - he throws himself in with palpable relish - and shouts and swears his way in a remarkably winning performance. Subtle it ain't - but man it is genuinely entertainment, pure and simple.

The lasting impression is the tremendous energy of the script and Jude Law - it could really be a stage play in places - it is not often these days that movies create energy through an excellent script, rather than energy by effects - this does.

No way is this the greatest film of the year - but Jude Law's performance is full of sly humour, and Richard E Grant obviously loved being the dry sidekick - there is more than a touch of Withnail to the whole proceedings and he is superb.

Dom Hemingway avoids squeamish violence in the main and goes for the jugular in its script instead - it even has more than a touch of pathos admid the insanity. All in all, if you like films with some style, real laughs, and energy - and crude craziness - then this fits the bill better than most.

As soon as the film started and Dom (Jude Law) begins a near 2 minute long speech proudly stating his admiration for a certain part of his anatomy, there was only one thing running through my mind; This is incredibly similar Tom Hardy's role as Bronson in the 2008 film; a watered down one.

The accent, the pronunciation and overall persona from Dom Hemingway just screams Bronson. If you haven't seen Bronson then you won't be able to associate it as easily and probably will enjoy the character more. I don't bring it up to in any way discourage Jude Law's performance; it is a great portrayal of a banged up Londoner who's out for financial retribution. A role you really can't associate with Jude Law and he does it justice on so many levels. It's not him that's the problem, it's the character. Not just the Bronson comparison, but the constant ranting throughout the film; full of synonyms and thesaurus like tirades. It becomes very repetitive.

There are some really funny moments, but like with the rest of the film the comedy starts to become slightly tedious. It is Dickie (Richard E Grant) who produces a lot of the witty comedy; he is funny throughout.

Still, a fairly good film with some good performances, violence, comedy, and a story of a hopeful father/daughter reconciliation to add to that.

"A man with no options suddenly has all the options in the world", says the chain-smoking, whiskey-muddled, and articulate but filthy Dom Hemingway. Proclaimed the greatest safe-cracker of the ages, Dom Hemingway (Jude Law, Closer) is back on the streets after twelve years of solitude (twelve years is a running theme of 2013, it seems). His daughter grown up, his partner without his left hand, and in dire need of his earnings, he pursues his criminal associates (a twirly moustache Frenchman, surprise) in search of his deserved reward. Verbose and foul, Dom is a walking thesaurus, a drunken Shakespearean, using more words in a sentence than one should in a lifetime – for example, the opening sequence is a two-and-a-half minute monologue about his cock. That about sums up Dom Hemingway, an enjoyable albeit shallow dark comedy.

A watered down Bronson, a film of similar premise, Dom Hemingway is delightfully dark, similar to his psyche – he is disgusting, filthy, violent and loud, but he retains an iota of charm, one of the few things dragging the film along. Bearing numerous similarities to Refn's prisoner character study, Dom Hemingway is truly a visual feast: the pumping nightlife of downtown London is full of colour and life. The screen is constantly full of greens and yellows, reds and pinks – it isn't dull to look at. While it isn't as intrusive and cerebral as Refn's terrifying glimpse into the mind of a madman, Dom Hemingway and Bronson share two familiar traits: a strong cockney accent and a loud mouth.

While they may retain similarities, they are largely superficial – I must apologise for my comparison of the two, they are different films, but it fluently highlights Dom Hemingway's numerous flaws. Dom's charisma simply doesn't compare to that of Bronson's, from the way he carries himself to the way he walks through the streets and alleys. While the loud and ostentatious Bronson was an addict to attention, Dom slinks into the shadows the way he slinks into a chair; sleazy and slouched. When opportune, he indulges in delightful monologue, Shakespearean in his formidable vocabulary, but it all tastes a slight bit overdone. The script, like Hemingway himself, is largely self-indulgent and masturbatory, and is surely tiresome.

Ignoring the occasionally obnoxious monologue, Dom powerfully commands the screen, even if his persona is quite the opposite. Separated from his cigarettes and whiskey for twelve years, he takes great pleasure in his intoxicated over-indulgement. For example, over three days Dom compensates for twelve years of seclusion with alcohol, drugs and prostitutes – but it doesn't really work, he just ends up very hungover indeed. Such is the life of Dom Hemingway, fuelled by toxicants and greed, when there really are better things to do – reconnect with his long-since abandoned daughter perhaps. Dom's antithesis, his daughter Evelyn (Emelia Clarke, Game of Thrones), is a force to be reckoned with; the opposite of her father's boisterous exterior, she is instead quiet and passive. Contrasting the pounding nightclubs of London, she sings in a country club, her voice soft and soothing compared to her father's loose and loud tongue.

Unfortunately, Dom Hemingway has little punch. The first act is incredibly enjoyable, but act by act, its quality subsides. Fast paced exposition, into an extremely average midpoint, into an abysmal climax (I must admit I enjoyed the final scene), it grew less and less entertaining. Dom Hemingway forgot what it set out to be – its foul-mouthed, violent charm was abducted and replaced by a crowd-pleasing father-daughter subplot. It was unnecessary, contrived, and clichéd. The obnoxious American's shoehorned exposition was similarly sloppy, revealing the (already obvious) moral of the story in last-minute exposition – it became extremely unnecessary and artificial.

Jude Law performs excellently, as does the majority of the cast, yet Hemingway's left-hand-less right-hand man Dickie (Richard E. Grant, The Corpse Bride) completely steals the show, injecting wit and energy into every scene, contrasting Hemingway's rambunctious bluntness. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to elevate Dom Hemingway's paradoxically undercooked-while-overcooked dialogue. With an over-emphasis on Hemingway's verbose monologue and an under-emphasis on every else, Dom Hemingway is a superficial, attractive, generally fun film with little depth – I'm sure no one would be bothered if they saw this as a rental, but I wouldn't suggest going out of your way for it.

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Admittedly there's not much to this film outside of Jude Law's force of nature performance, he's a filthy, foul mouthed monolith of vulgarity and nastiness, and a joy to watch, it's a true revelation of a turn for the actor, breaking his posh, pretty boy image to pieces and gobbing on those pieces. Sure there's not much to the script or story, which are threadbare and under nourishing, plus Richard E Grant is somewhat wasted despite being rather wonderful, and there are many coincidental contrivances that sully the film a bit towards the end, but enjoy it for Law, for the stylish, off kilter approach to the British gangster movie genre, for the many gloriously profane monologues and the general fun depravity of the thing, plus it gets extra points for being surprisingly moving come the third act, which does not seem remotely likely given the first two thirds. A solid cult movie in the making.

I just saw the gala premier at TIFF and overall, I enjoyed the film. The acting was terrific, with Jude Law playing Dom Hemingway in the lead. The first few minutes of the movie had me wondering what I had gotten myself into, as it really starts off with a bang (or a blow, perhaps). That feeling of not quite knowing what I was watching stayed with me for a bit, as the movie is vulgar, violent, funny, and awkward, sometimes all at once. In the end, I liked I really liked it and found myself rooting for Dom despite having a bunch of reasons not to. It's worth watching for the terrific acting, and the moments between Dom and Dickie when things get tense are great.