Dom Hemingway

Name: Dom Hemingway
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: April 2, 2014
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 55
Cast: Demián Bichir, Emilia Clarke, Jude Law, Richard E. Grant

2014

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Ratings

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6.4

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6.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Ratings

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Dom Hemingway

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Movie Details & Credits

Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: April 2, 2014 | R

Starring: Demián Bichir, Emilia Clarke, Jude Law, Richard E. Grant

Summary: After twelve years in prison, Dom Hemingway (Jude Law) sets off with his partner in crime Dickie (Richard E. Grant) looking to collect what he's owed for keeping his mouth shut and protecting his boss Mr. Fontaine (Demian Bichir). After a near death experience, Dom tries to re-connect with his estranged daughter (Emilia Clarke), but is soonAfter twelve years in prison, Dom Hemingway (Jude Law) sets off with his partner in crime Dickie (Richard E. Grant) looking to collect what he's owed for keeping his mouth shut and protecting his boss Mr. Fontaine (Demian Bichir). After a near death experience, Dom tries to re-connect with his estranged daughter (Emilia Clarke), but is soon drawn back into the only world he knows, looking to settle the ultimate debt.… Expand

Director: Richard Shepard

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 93 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Owen Gleiberman

Apr 2, 2014

If ever there were an actor ripe to ''McConaughnesize'' his career, it's Jude Law — and guess what, he has done it, spectacularly, in Dom Hemingway. Read full review

David Denby

Apr 9, 2014

Jude Law, saying farewell once again to his youthful good looks (Dom has scars and a little too much weight), makes this hyper-articulate ruffian the most intricately soulful character in current movies. [7 April 2014, p.75]

RogerEbert.com Glenn Kenny

Apr 2, 2014

The drama Dom Hemingway explores involves a vicious lout finding a form of redemption, and while that's an all-too conventional scenario, Shepard's movie plays it out in a brisk, inventive fashion and delivers a moviegoing experience that's almost equal parts stingingly sharp and genuinely sweet. Read full review

Michael Phillips

Apr 10, 2014

The material, limited payoff; the performer at the center, never less than arresting. Read full review

Amy Nicholson

Apr 1, 2014

If only Shepard's movie lived up to his leading man. It's merely a frame for a character portrait, with Shepard's camera screwing our eyes to Law's performance and pasting in supporting actors and situations for no larger purpose than to see his reaction to them. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Sep 15, 2013

Richard Shepard’s film is far from dull, but it just doesn’t feel like the real thing, more like an artificial construct inspired by pumped-up crime favorites from a couple of decades ago. Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Apr 1, 2014

When you name your movie Dom Hemingway and then require the titular antihero to repeatedly declare, “I am Dom Hemingway!” the filmmakers must be very confident that there is something special about their character. Too bad there isn’t. Read full review

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User Reviews

amboy

Apr 20, 2014

This is a foul mouthed lark on the order of Sexy Beast, but is lifted to the level of superb by the all stops out performance of Jude Law. Who would have thought Gentleman Jude had it in him? He gives the whole film a glorious manic energy. Great fun but violent and as profane as WallThis is a foul mouthed lark on the order of Sexy Beast, but is lifted to the level of superb by the all stops out performance of Jude Law. Who would have thought Gentleman Jude had it in him? He gives the whole film a glorious manic energy. Great fun but violent and as profane as Wall Street's Wolf.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

pearlmistry

Mar 16, 2019

WOWWW absolutely AMAZING film !! wow the cast is amazing JUDE LAW wow wow wow so good

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

BobbyPeru

Apr 3, 2014

Jude Law is great, but the pacing of the story lacks any rhythm. Some scenes play too long and while a rambling narrative can be a fun ride, there's just a bit too much slack here to support Law's performance. It tips into the green because the cast as a whole is fun to watch and ShepardJude Law is great, but the pacing of the story lacks any rhythm. Some scenes play too long and while a rambling narrative can be a fun ride, there's just a bit too much slack here to support Law's performance. It tips into the green because the cast as a whole is fun to watch and Shepard makes some fun choices in his use of music, color, camera angle and slow motion.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

NightReviews

Apr 18, 2014

There comes a time in every clean, charming actor’s career where the prospect of playing the bad guy is just as exciting as playing the good guy. Jude Law has been an actor who has played the good guy for the last two decades with dignity and compassion; from a sophisticated playboy inThere comes a time in every clean, charming actor’s career where the prospect of playing the bad guy is just as exciting as playing the good guy. Jude Law has been an actor who has played the good guy for the last two decades with dignity and compassion; from a sophisticated playboy in Alfie, to a artificially intelligent gigolo in A.I: Artificial Intelligence, to young, lost writers in Closer and the recent The Grand Budapest Hotel, it’s clear that Law’s time to wreck havoc is now.

Dom Hemingway is Jude Law’s entrance to the world of cinema’s certifiably insane; driven on ego, sexual prowess and the pursuit of criminal icon status, Law’s performance is one performance that will have you believing in the power of filthy transformations on film.

Law embodies Hemingway; a loud, fouled-mouth safecracking vagabond whose rough Shakespearean-esque monologues are fuelled like a man on an eternal sugar rush and coke bender. Law, who put on thirty pounds, reportedly drank ten bottles of coke a day to thicken his midsection and put on an unhealthy amount of weight in a short period of time to portray Hemingway’s peasant-like/rugby player body figure, and does it sure work. Law, who has always been a delicate and fashionably conscious film star, sheds all charm aside and replaces it with rugged goatee, absurdity and crudeness, always pushing the envelope with his words and actions.

Dom Hemingway opens just days before Dom’s released from a long twelve year unknown criminal sentence. Naked and at the pleasure end of a fellow inmate’s fellatio duties, it becomes clear that Dom’s priorities in life are his dignity, his legacy, his cock, his ego and what is due to him at the end of his sentence from his boss Mr. Fountaine, played wonderfully by the constantly underrated Damien Bichir.

Upon his release, Dom settles a few scores, including beating the life out of his decease wide’s second husband Sandy Butterfield (Nick Raggett) for no good reason, chugging down a pint (or ten), sex with hookers, coke and collecting what’s due to him. After three days of partying that results in the most throbbing and painful hangover recorded, Dom and his trusty best friend Dixie Black (Richard E. Grant) visit Mr. Fountaine for Dom’s reward of silence in the south of France. As tempers flare and egos cross revolving around Mr.Fountaine’s newest exotic squeeze Paolina (Madalina Diana Ghenea), Dom gets what he wants from Mr.Fontaine in a mutual agreement. Together with Fountaine, Dom and his company celebrate like any good gangsters, thefts and crooks would do; with a ton of drugs, women and illegal activity. But while Dom and his entourage are enjoying his newly found freedom, another scheme to screw Dom from his twelve year long reward unexpected throws Dom cycle of deep, crappy luck.

Director Richard Shepard (The Matador) is the mastermind behind Dom Hemingway, writing and directing the picture, he captures a diabolical character through his trusted muse and actor Jude Law that is both grotesque yet gains minimal empathy from its audience. Together, the actor and director indulge in a exaggerated and highly unnecessary story of a man’s unhealthy lifestyle, poor choices and an estranged daughter Evelyn (Emilia Clarke) who refuses to acknowledge her father in any way. Essentially, Dom admits to always being a greasy, slimy, peasant level crook who chooses to find a shortcut to success and fortune, even if his skewed brain thinks serving a twelve years sentence pays over hard work and a family. His attempts to assimilate himself in the life of his daughter Evelyn, her husband Hugh (Nathan Stewart-Jarret), and a grandson he never knew he had, becomes the most gut-wrenching moments of the film, substituting theatrical monologues and insanity for tender emotion and human triumph. Sadly, the film only spends minimal amount of time with Dom and his daughter, and more on scenes involving low-level gangster and a heist scene involving Dom humping a safe.

If there is one word that could describe Dom Hemingway as a whole it would be filthy–his attitude is filthy, he antics are outrageous, his execution is uncalled for, yet, surrounded by the deep reds fuelled by anger and a drunken stupor, Dom still manages to always mess up, gaining sympathy from his audience. Tormented and plagued by a series of misfortunes, Dom is his own worst enemy, choosing his image as a notorious safecracker over his family.

There isn’t much to Dom Hemingway as a whole. The basis of the narrative only takes place in a few locations and involves very few characters, but the essence of the film relies on monologues and dialogues usually involving Dom and other characters that hardly drives the narrative, if at all. For the most part, many of the characters seemed force to be included in Dom life’s, serving only a purpose of adding to Dom’s regret of being quiet for those twelve years and adding a certain amount of guilt to our drug-fuelled character.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

duncan1964

Mar 29, 2015

Dom Hemingway has just been released from prison and travels to the south of France to get money that he is owed from a master criminal. A slight film built around a star turn from Jude Law it is, admittedly, all surface but its an entertaining surface with an expletive strewn script thatDom Hemingway has just been released from prison and travels to the south of France to get money that he is owed from a master criminal. A slight film built around a star turn from Jude Law it is, admittedly, all surface but its an entertaining surface with an expletive strewn script that the cast all relish, it's just a shame that there isn't more meat on the bones of the story. The real delight of the film is seeing Law throw off the shackles of his pretty boy career and embrace character acting.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Derek1127

Mar 30, 2015

an overall strange movie that tries to be both serious and funny at the same time. Sometimes it works but most of the time I was left just scratching my head.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

LeZee

Jul 4, 2016

An ex-con caught between in his old life and to adapt a new one.

The film is worth watching only for Jude Law in the title role. All the other character were weak, only he was the bright shining spot in it. The story also should have been better. At least improvising Emilia Clarke's partAn ex-con caught between in his old life and to adapt a new one.

The film is worth watching only for Jude Law in the title role. All the other character were weak, only he was the bright shining spot in it. The story also should have been better. At least improvising Emilia Clarke's part as she was in a an important role would have had a good impact on the film. Of course, it's a black-comedy-drama in the crime theme, but utilise its full potential to go some extent like maybe some interesting crime plots.

A few segments were quite absorbing like bet on to open the safe and France visit. There's no smooth storytelling, but the constant rise and fall of the main character was the reason for the lag in development and its pace. The overall point was very clear in portraying a struggling ex con and how he adapts to a new life or he desires to go back to his old life tells the remaining film. So some people might like or liked it, but I did not. Just below average film, but it's okay to watch once.

4/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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