\t \t \t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Everett Collection \t\t\t\t\t \t \t\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t \tEarly in his career, it was easy to cast Jude Law as the epitome of desire \u2014 his Hollywood debut, 1997\u2019s \u201cGattaca,\u201d cast him as a man literally genetically engineered to perfection. That same year saw two films, \u201cMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\u201d and \u201cWilde,\u201d in which protagonists were driven to ruin by their lust for Law\u2019s characters.<\/p>\n
\tBut Law always brought a complexity and tinge of tragedy to these roles, and he soon found A-list directors lining up to work with him. The result is a unique career not restricted by genre or medium, encompassing unexpected choices just when you thought you had him figured out. Here\u2019s a look at 10 of the actor\u2019s best performances on film.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tDom Hemingway (2013) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tRichard Shepard\u2019s black comedy\/crime drama isn\u2019t for everyone, as it\u2019s purposefully abrasive and asks you to spend 93 minutes with a whole series of unsavory characters. But Law is completely committed from the opening (filthy) line to the character of Dom, a safecracker who spent 12 years in prison after refusing to sell out his boss. Violence and mayhem abound (along with the threat of castration), but Law seems to be having a blast with a no-holds-barred turn you can\u2019t take your eyes off.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tA.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tLaw was already known as more than a pretty face when Steven Spielberg cast him as \u201cGigolo Joe,\u201d a \u201cmale pleasure Mecha\u201d a.k.a. sex robot in this ambitious sci-fi parable set in a futuristic society. Joe is an expert at seduction, a charmer who can look people right in the eye and lie convincingly. Everything about Joe is smooth and graceful, from his artificial skin to the cap of hair that seems to lock into place like a Lego. When Joe begins caretaking an 11-year-old Mecha child named David (Haley Joel Osment), his commitment is both deeply human and determinedly robotic.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tThe Order (2024) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tYou can feel the weight of the world on the shoulders of FBI agent Terry Husk, who led the investigation of a neo-Nazi group called the Order. Though events took place in 1983, the film could not feel timelier as Husk is determined to stop the rise of white supremacy before it becomes a socially acceptable norm. Husk is haunted by his own demons. He\u2019s estranged from his wife and family and carries the burden of years of difficult cases \u2014 and the emotional scars are etched all over Law\u2019s face. Husk gets off to a slow start; there are times you\u2019ll wonder if he\u2019s actually up for the job. But that\u2019s the fascinating part; it\u2019s a touching performance in a genre that tends to glorify such characters.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tSpy (2015) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: 20th Century Fox Licensing\/Merchandising \/ Everett Collection\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tLike every British actor before him, Law was at one time rumored to be in the running to play James Bond \u2014 though he denies he was ever offered the role. While we never got to see him hold 007\u2019s martini, the action-comedy gives us something better: Law as Bradley Fine, a suave super-agent who is also totally oblivious to the fact his partner Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is madly in love with him. An early scene finds Bradley giving Susan a velvet box \u2014 a token of his appreciation \u2014 only to reveal the ugliest cupcake necklace known to man. \u201cIt\u2019s a crazy cupcake!\u201d Fine chortles, bugging out his eyes and holding up his hands like claws. It\u2019s somehow seductive and hilarious all at once.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tThe Young Pope (2016) and The New Pope (2020) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of HBO\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tThough it launched countless memes, Paolo Sorrentino\u2019s big, bold and nasty series never got the proper attention it deserved. Perhaps the image of a Coke-swilling, narcissistic leader drunk with absolute power who surprisingly ascends on the highest title in his domain hit a bit too close to home in early 2017 when the first series premiered in the states on HBO. Still, Law\u2019s performance as the titular Pope Pius XIII is mesmerizing \u2014 even when he spends the majority of the second series, the 2020 follow-up, \u201cThe New Pope,\u201d in a coma. Despicable and malevolent, Law understands the key to all bullies: they believe they are the victims.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tVox Lux (2013) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Atsushi Nishijima\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tLaw likely had plenty of personal experience to draw on for his role as the manipulative talent manager to Natalie Portman\u2019s pop star in Brady Corbet\u2019s underrated gem. But as a sleazy opportunist who just might be the literal devil, the actor wanted to avoid the typical tropes and cliches. So he drew inspiration from both real-life producer Robert Evans and Ben Gazzara\u2019s character in \u201cThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie,\u201d a desperate man trying to maintain a fa\u00e7ade of charm. Law shows the appeal of selling one\u2019s soul for fame and fortune, but also nails the seedy underbelly.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tRoad to Perdition (2002) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9DreamWorks\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tShortly after directors Spielberg and Anthony Minghella cast Law as the model of male perfection in \u201cA.I.\u201d and \u201cThe Talented Mr. Ripley,\u201d respectively, the actor decided to upend expectations by playing Harlen Maguire, a Depression-era freelance killer. Designed to evoke a rodent, Law is seen early on hunched over a cup of coffee with sickly pale skin and a deeply unsettling grin full of rotting teeth. (Apparently even Law hated his look and wore a hat to disguise his thinned hairline whenever he wasn\u2019t shooting.) Everything about him is cruel and unpleasant. It\u2019s not just his physical appearance \u2014 it\u2019s the determined and dispassionate way Maguire goes about executing his subjects and the clear fascination he displays watching them expire.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tThe Nest (2020) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of IFC Films\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tThough nothing overtly supernatural occurs in Sean Durkin\u2019s moody marital drama, there is something dark and unsettling about it. (There is also an old country manor, a dead animal and children acting out, so one can be forgiven for expecting a literal ghost story.) Instead, Law and Carrie Coon play Rory and Allison O\u2019Hara, the heads of a family that uproot its New York life to follow Rory\u2019s dreams to the U.K. No one does surface charm better than Law, and as the film goes on, both Allison and the audience begin to discover how dishonest Rory has been about their fortunes. It never stops him from spinning new promises or possibilities \u2014 and his desperation is what truly haunts the story.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tThe Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tPlaying the rich and charming Dickie Greenleaf in his first collaboration with Minghella, it\u2019s understandable why Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is awestruck. But Law makes the character more than just a louche playboy, showing his genuine affection for his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) and glimpses into a more complicated man under his (admittedly very appealing) surface. It earned Law his first Oscar nomination \u2014 his second would come from reteaming with Minghella on 2004\u2019s \u201cCold Mountain\u201d \u2014
\nand proved the buzz around the rising star had been warranted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \tThe Holiday 2006 \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9Columbia Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \tThose who look down on romantic comedies as somehow a lesser genre be damned. Nancy Meyers\u2019 \u201cThe Holiday\u201d features Law at his very best in full movie star mode but also down-to-earth and relatable as Graham, a widowed father who hooks up with the woman vacationing in his sister\u2019s house (an excellent Cameron Diaz). Law had resisted doing an all-out rom-com (the closest he came was \u201cAlfie\u201d in 2004), but after two Oscar nominations and some ambitious but flawed projects (\u201cSky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,\u201d \u201cAll the King\u2019s Men\u201d), the actor signed on for this unabashedlly frothy and romantic film. It was a role that intimidated him because he wasn\u2019t hiding behind an accent or a character look, but he pulls it off flawlessly, and his chemistry with Diaz is undeniable. Graham\u2019s declaration of love ranks up there with the best grand gestures.\u00a0 Law makes it looks easy, but the genre is one of the hardest to do well, and he\u2019s a large reason the film has become a new holiday classic.<\/p>\n
\t\t \t \t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t \t\tMore from Variety \t \t \t \t \t \t \t \t \t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Courtesy of Everett Collection Early in his career, it was easy to cast Jude Law as the epitome of desire \u2014 his Hollywood debut, 1997\u2019s \u201cGattaca,\u201d cast him as a man literally genetically engineered to perfection. That same year saw two films, \u201cMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\u201d and \u201cWilde,\u201d in which protagonists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}