Dom Hemingway

This dark comic crime drama from Ugly Betty director Richard Sheppard follows the misadventures of reprobate gangster Dom Hemingway, played by a beefy Jude Law. Hemingway’s release from a twelve-year stint in prison prompts an energetic, and at times inebriated jaunt to the South of France to collect money owed on account of his long silence. In tow is Hemingway’s doggedly loyal best friend Dickie, played by the well casted and flamboyant Richard E Grant. A lurid montage of the pair’s sleazy encounters and Hemingway’s grotesque temper tantrums ensues, before the eponymous character has a crisis of confidence and decides to reconnect with long lost daughter Evelyn (Emilia Clarke).

The tone of Dom Hemingway is set in the opening scene’s lurid prison sex act. Abundant in punchy wise cracks and violent escapades, it is easy to see how the film has been likened to Sexy Beast, another tale of an ageing hard man gone to seed. Indeed Law’s Hemingway is lewd, grotesque and out of control, yet his receding hairline and propensity for tears never draw him as truly threatening.. However undeniably this is an enjoyable film; Grant’s exuberant Dickie, and the surprisingly moving discourse between father and daughter, are both features that make Dom Hemingway worth seeing. Fans of Guy Ritchie’s colourful crime capers will best appreciate the humour.

Helena Skinner