Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
The third film in the Fantastic Beasts series releases this weekend with the usual suspects in tow with a notable exception, that is the replacement of Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen. It’s said to have been a great success. Regardless, this week’s individual we’ll be lookin at is Jude Law. In this film, he plays the younger Dumbledore with a more full beard than the prior outing. Law has a rather eclectic filmography that spans populist and artistic with plenty in between. He’s an affable actor who plays both good and bad characters with equal capability. Let’s take a look at my 5 favorite Jude Law films.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Last July, I went into my 5 favorite films from Matt Damon. The Talented Mr. Ripley came up then as well. This film, about a young man (Damon) who is mistaken for a rich playboy and is paid handsomely to travel to Italy where he must convince Dickie (Law) to return home. This tale of mistaken identity, murder, and recriminations was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith and directed by filmmaker Anthony Minghella hot off his 9-time Oscar-winning masterpiece The English Patient.
Expectations were high his fifth directorial outing and it was a success. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning none of them. Although Damon should have been nominated Best Actor, the lone acting nomination was for Law who delivered one of his most acclaimed performances to that point. This performance might not seem like the more accessible characters he’s played and with whom most audiences are familiar, but there was little denying that Law and Damon both helped make this film the success it was.
No original review available.
Road to Perdition (2002)
It’s interesting that the second film on my list for this week is another picture by an Oscar-winning director directing his follow-up film to his acclaimed success. The strange similarities don’t end there as Mendes was also releasing three years after his prior Oscar success. While American Beauty was Mendes feature directing debut, English Patient was Minghella’s fourth. American Beauty, which likewise won Best Picture and Directing, was only nominated in 8 categories, winning 5.
Putting aside the strange coincidences, this film was well received by critics and was based on a graphic novel of the same name. Mendes’ sophomore effort starred Tom Hanks as a mob enforcer seeking to bring the man who murdered all of his family except his son. I spoke of this film when I looked back at my favorite films in Ciaran Hinds’ filmography, so I won’t say much more about the film. Law plays an assassin hired by the head of the family (Paul Newman) who goes to great lengths to pursue Hanks. It’s one of several strong performances in the film.
No original review available.
Closer (2004)
When you’ve done an article like this for so long, the number of films that repeat is ponderous. Yet again, we have another film that I’ve taken a look at previously, though one that hasn’t been touched on in more than a year. Mike Nichols had been directing films for the big screen since 1966 with this film being his penultimate feature before his death in 2014. Nichols was adept at small ensemble pieces, especially comedies. The biggest titles on his filmography include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate (for which he won the Oscar for directing), Silkwood, and The Birdcage.
Closer was a surprise box office hit, grossing over $115 million at the box office on the bankability of its stars, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen. All four give sensational performances in a complex romantic drama that sees the four characters in varying arrangements of relationships. While Roberts and Law were ostensibly leads, Portman and Owen received most of the acclaim, each earning Oscar nominations for their performances. Law and Roberts are still wonderful and would have been fitting nominees as well. This film was something of a divisive effort upon its release. In spite of that, it still ended up being a success.
Hugo (2011)
Law’s filmography is rather impressive. It runs the gamut between box office smashes and small intimate dramas with a whole lot of work in between. He has worked with many legendary directors, including the aforementioned Nichols, as well as Wong Kar-wai, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese, who directed this film, their second pairing. In a small roll in Scorsese’s The Aviator, Law has a slightly expanded role here as the title character’s clockmaker father.
This delightful action adventure film is one of the most impressive works Scorsese directed in his illustrious career and remains one of his better efforts in the last two decades. Based on a children’s book, the film follows Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) as he moves in with his uncle and works to maintain the clockworks at the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris. There, he meets a young girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) whose godfather is filmmaking pioneer George Méliès (A Trip to the Moon). As the two attempt to repair a broken automaton while avoiding the watchful eye of the station’s inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). Law doesn’t have much screen time to develop a character, but this is a wonderful little trip into the fanciful world of the novel that blends in a nice bit of cinema history.
Spy (2015)
Comparing Paul Feig to the prior four filmmakers is a fool’s errand. While Feig has a lot of talent with comedies, he’s not really developed the kind of career that earns him a longstanding reputation even if he can produce popular entertainment like Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters. Feig’s fruitful partnership with Melissa McCarthy lead to this twist on the traditional spy narrative, turning the classic James Bond tropes on their ears with women taking on roles that are too often portrayed by men in spy thrillers.
McCarthy plays a handler for a prominent field agent (Law) who inadvertently kills a notorious arms dealer with a nuclear suitcase without obtaining the location. Matters are further complicated when the CIA’s roster of field agents is compromised, forcing them to send desk jockey McCarthy into the field to stop the arms dealer’s ruthless daughter (Rose Byrne) from detonating the bomb. It’s a hilarious film with terrific performances from all involved, including McCarthy, Law, Byrne, Miranda Hart as McCarthy’s best friend and field handler, and Jason Statham as a bumbling spy in one of the few roles I can actually say I enjoyed.
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