by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

If you thought you would be seeing a film related to Ernest Hemingway you couldn’t be further off track. Dom Hemingway (Jude Law) is a larger-than-life safecracker with a screw loose. The profane and nutty man, returns on the streets of London after twelve years in prison, to collect what he’s owed for keeping his mouth shut.

The British black-comedy-crime drama, directed and written by Richard Shepard gives two-time Oscar nominee, Jude Law, the chance to go wild in a nervy, brash, one-of-a-kind comedic performance. Dom is “an explosive, poetic, scary, yet strangely funny man,” Law muses; indeed, despite the character’s hotheaded-extravagant-boisterous behaviour, his fairness will conquer audiences.

Also the rest of the cast – Richard E. Grant, Demiián Bichir, Emilia Clarke, Jumayn Hunter, Mădălina Diana Ghenea, Kerry Condon – is worthy of praise. Nevertheless the plot is an old hat, and makes no effort to move away from dynamics we’ve seen over and over again in this flick genre. Everything is fairly predictable and despite Jude Law’s career-best-performance, the entire story turns out to be a forcefully preposterous gangster saga, that leaves no room to stupefaction, despite its continuous attempt to shock.