Worth seeing for Jude Law and the ode to his penis during the opening scenes.

besides, te film has given the best description of a hangover I have ever heard in a film:

"Cossacks are sodomizing my cranium"

In (and as) Dom Hemingway, Jude Law emancipates himself from his status as a beautiful leading man and delivers one of his finest performances to date. He is heavier and unshaven. He has a gold tooth. And he is profane and violent: the film opens with the character, a London thief nearing the end of his decade-plus period of incarceration, delivering an ecstatic soliloquy in ode to his penis to the camera as another inmate, shall we say, gives him pleasure below. The enthusiastic quality of Law's performance, the sense he is eager to dive into this colorful rogue and explore each compartment and touch each sharp edge, both buoys and, in a way, betrays Dom Hemingway as a film. It is a towering piece of acting. Whether he is raging, seducing, stealing, or otherwise causing trouble, it is a delight to see Law move as the character and an even grander delight to hear him rip through the dialogue, laced as it is with obscenities and left-field cultural references, with ferocious machine-gun speed. As Hemingway's closest (perhaps only) friend and previous partner-in-crime, Richard E. Grant, a cult icon of British comic cinema due to Withnail and I, is also very strong, embracing the role of the dry and wry straight man with poise and wit.

Which leaves us with the film in which Law and Grant find themselves. It is fine, solid even, and has a confident visual style defined by bright colors tempered by urban grit, yet it is also plagued by a modest, unspectacular air. Tonal transitions, including a third-act emphasis on Hemingway's sentimental bid to win over his estranged daughter, are mechanical rather than graceful. Its vision of an old-school gangster caught in a shifting and volatile landscape is never as persuasive as, say, The Long Good Friday, nor is the entire enterprise anywhere near as high-impact and well-woven as, say, Snatch. In the end, we are left with a second-tier crime romp with a first-tier, downright majestic performance. On a personal level, the vast pleasure I derived from Law's achievement largely compensates for the shortcomings of the film to which he has bequeathed the performance, though others' mileage will no doubt vary in this regard.

B+

This may be an unoriginal notion, but I rather wish they structured the second and third acts around a specific caper. It would be fun to see Law and Grant's characters in full Rififi mode, and the film could use the structure, and the momentum, provided by a heist.

Rather enjoyed this. This is the best performance I've seen from Jude. I think they could've done a little more with the story though.

It's pretty average but it's worth seeing for Jude Law's great performance alone.

Dom Hemingway

This was rather disappointing. It just 90 minutes of rage and greed. The third act redemption felt forced, and he's such a vile person that I can't imagine any viewer giving a shit. Jude Law was fantastic, though. He totally consumed Dom Hemingway, and the film had a few funny moments, but most of them didn't land well. Richard E. Grant was pretty good, but also pretty useless too. Emilia Clarke was useless. Even the "hot girl" (Paulina) was strange looking. Eh, I don't know, I'm disappointed by the film. It was such an empty film. The trailer got me really excited to see the film. But around the 50-minute mark, I felt my excitement levels suddenly drop, and a realisation come over me that this film isn't going to turn out to be that great. And it didn't. Normally I would let Law's performance sway me into giving this a good grade, but not this time. It just doesn't feel right.

C+