Blu-ray Review “Dom Hemingway”

Starring: Jude Law, Richard E. Grant, Emilia Clarke, Demián Bichir
Director: Richard Shepard
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: July 22, 2014
Run Time: 94 minutes

Film: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I didn’t catch “Dom Hemingway” in theaters, in fact I heard that it was pretty bad. I am a big Jude Law fan, so I figured I would give it a chance. Well, everyone else I was let down for it as a film. It is a basic crime comedy but what made it rather watchable was Law’s outstanding performance. Even though I wasn’t thrilled with the film, you got to give the guy credit for really nailing a character. Dom Hemingway is quite the hoot of a character, too bad the whole film can ride on his shoulders.

Official Premise: Jude Law steals the show as “Dom Hemingway”, a larger-than-life safecracker with a short fuse — and a long memory — who sets off to collect what he’s owed after 12 years in prison. When his long-awaited payday goes awry, Dom tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Emilia Clarke), only to be tempted again to crack safes.

20th Century Fox is releasing this film as a combo pack including a Blu-ray and Digital HD Digital Copy. The 1080p transfer and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 are both solid and equally look and sound decent. In terms of special features, there is not a whole lot to brag about. There are a few Promotional Featurettes, a Ping-Pong Loop, an Audio Commentary by Richard Shepard and also a Gallery and Theatrical Trailer included. Marginal extras for a marginal film.

Film Review “Dom Hemingway”

Starring: Jude Law, Richard E. Grant, Demian Bichir, Emilia Clarke
Directed By: Richard Shepard
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 93 minutes

Our Score: 2 out of 5 Stars

Jude Law struts and blusters around the screen as a Cockney safecracker who’s just been released after twelve years in prison in Richard Shepard’s Dom Hemingway. The title character makes for a lot of fun and a surprising performance from Law however it’s undercut by an episodic script that doesn’t really know what to do with all its characters, least of all Dom.

Dom’s angry that he’s spent so much time in jail but his objections are foggy from the get go. Immediately he beats the bloody pulp out of his dead wife’s second husband, but then he’s remorseful over being estranged from his daughter (Emilia Clarke), but then that thread is dropped so he might go off and attain reparations for his prison time spent protecting crime boss, Mr. Fontaine (Demian Bichir, who is no more threatening than Dos Equis’s Most Interesting Man in the World character). But first Dom must go on a three day binge of coke and hookers.

Like most things in Dom’s life, his meeting with Mr. Fontaine goes awfully and is spent alternately yelling at the crime boss for money while lusting after his girlfriend and then apologizing for the yelling and the lusting at the behest of Dom’s partner in crime, Dickie (a wonderful Richard E Grant whose judgmental looks deserved more screen time.) This meeting features some of the film’s highlights including Grant chasing a nude Law through an orchard and a spectacularly over the top car crash scene that the remainder of the film can’t live up to.

For some reason the car crash is the near-death experience that rewires Dom into wanting to make amends with his daughter. It’s here where the movie is most problematic as it attempts to balance the deadbeat father-daughter dynamic with the larger than life criminal who’s more compelling when behaving badly. Additionally, it’s hard to believe that this character hasn’t had many near-death experiences in his mess of a life so what made this one so different? The film’s never quite clear on this and an outrageous sequence where Dom attempts to regain his safecracking infamy doesn’t help sell the angle that Dom would ever make good on going straight for his family’s sake. Shepard appears to think that the mere fact that Dom has a dead wife and an estranged daughter is reason enough for the audience’s sympathy without doing anything to actually earn it.