Jude Law continues to break himself down in order to, hopefully, rebuild his career. You’re
watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of Black Sea...
Is Jude Law just a few steps behind Ben Affleck? Both lived the good life as Hollywood pretty
boys until ridicule cut the party short - in 2005, it was then Oscar host Chris Rock joking
that Law was the discount version of Tom Cruise who’d take on any film that was offered
to him. And to be fair, in 2004 Law had appeared in SIX films. But Law was so upset by the
remark that he fired his agent at CAA, who’d made him a household name, and moved to Endeavor
in the hopes - it was reported - of being taken more seriously. Well, apparently being
taken seriously takes a really long time because Law seemed to fade away from the Hollywood
constellation and only now seems to be making films as prolifically as he did prior to Rock’s
jab. Gone are the days of playing a spoiled rich kid or robot gigolo! Instead, Law has
been taking on more roles like his turn in Sam Mendes Road to Perdition back in 2002.
You almost never see his trademark curls anymore - save when he’s playing Watson to Robert
Downey’s Sherlock. In fact, in Repo Men, Contagion, Anna Karenina, Side Effects, Don
Hemingway and The Grand Budapest Hotel Law has done whatever he can to downplay his good
looks - so you can focus on his acting. He hasn’t gotten Affleck-level results yet,
and perhaps he should consider adding director to his repertoire. But right now he seems
content to work with talented, experienced directors. Steven Soderbergh, Joe Wright,
Wes Anderson - he’s even working with Paul Feig’s comedy Spy for 2015, where he’s
co-star opposite Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne and Jason Statham! And on Black Sea he’s
working with director Kevin Macdonald, the documentary filmmaker who transitioned to
narrative filmmaking with the Oscar winning The Last King of Scotland. Now Black Sea is
hardly Oscar bait, yet this solid little thriller could still impress considering the pedigree
of its cast. In addition to Law there’s Scoot McNairy, soon to be seen in Batman v
Superman, and Ben Mendelsohn, who’s quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s favorite character
actors. It’s also the first screenplay by Dennis Kelly, who co-wrote the incredibly
well-received musical Matilda as well as the UK TV series Utopia - y’know, the one Gone
Girl team David Fincher and Gillian Flynn are adapting for HBO. So is Black Sea just
a nifty line on all these people’s resume, or
something worth actually seeing?