Is 'Dom Hemingway' Star Jude Law One Of Hollywood's Best Actors?
When you’re Jude Law it’s hard not to get a little typecast. Having spent most of his career with a mop of blond hair that would have made the Greek god Apollo envious, Law’s acting ability had sometimes been overlooked because of, well, his looks. Although, as he’s matured and become slightly less 1D and slightly more Hugh Grant, he has branched out with less ‘Law’ roles and more challenging parts.
When his career hit its zenith in the late 90s he was bagging roles that relied on him being a bankable heartthrob, such as the prodigal son Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley and as the romantic lead, Inman, in Cold Mountain. Both performances were impressive, the former won him a BAFTA while the latter earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Throughout his now quite long career, Jude Law has produced a collection of critically acclaimed movies; however, several of his films have been sore disappointments.
If there’s one rule about movie making it should be ‘Don’t fix what isn’t broken’. Michael Caine IS Alfie, there's no argument about that. Remaking Alfie with Jude Law was like remaking Gone With The Wind with Danny Dyer as Rhett Butler. It was painful watching the entire movie practically slaughter the 1966 original. It’s not that Law wasn’t good, it’s that, well, the whole thing was just bad.
Watch the trailer for Dom Hemingway:
3880799-0;noautoplay; Dom Hemingway - Trailer - 04.12.2013 15:19:15
Other movies that Jude Law has starred in have also bombed at the box office and failed to win over the critics. The 2011 ensemble film 360 has a meagre 21% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, while 2009’s Rage, also starring Steve Buscemi and Judi Dench, is rated just 20%.
Law’s latest film Dom Hemingway has received mixed reviews, as has Law’s performance. Chris Cabin described the performance as having Law’s ‘reliable pizzazz’, while Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian criticised his ‘frantic and shouty performance’. The movie appears to be Law taking a risk at moving away from his regular well-spoken Englishman role, but sadly the critics don’t think it’s as easy as gaining 30 pounds and putting on an exaggerated accent.
Next page: More on why Jude Law is still one of Hollywood's finest
There’s no doubt that Jude Law is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand leading men, whether or not he’d produced a few flops in his time. After all, it happens to even the best actors, we’d all like to forget Robert Downey’s Jr.’s Due Date and Tom Cruise’s Vanilla Sky.
Actors do need to take risks to find the great roles, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Jude Law has shown that, much like Brad Pitt, he’s capable of serious roles as well as bringing out the comedy when the occasion calls for it (think his performance as Brad in I Heart Huckabees). Most importantly, he can hold his own on screen with Robert Downey Jr. in Guy Richie’s Sherlock Holmes movies, which is a remarkable feat in itself.
An immensely skilled actor, albeit without perfect judgement when it comes to certain movies, Jude Law is, without a doubt, one of the most talented leading men on the big screen at the moment. Perhaps he should just steer away from roles that require accents.
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