Poor Jude

Rating: 4/10 (29 January 2005)

Jude Law gives another strong performance in an otherwise turgid piece of artless ham. Patrick Marber's script contains the sort of 'state of the nation' drivel which was popular amongst literary types in the nineties. It has not aged well. An excruciating piece of Brit-flick 'product', mistaking profundity for profanity, heavy on histrionics and sexual confrontation; an egregious and deeply unconvincing portrait of a London which does not exist outside of the shallow self-referential imagination of the enormously smug Marber. The judgement of the picture's stars must now forever be held in doubt. Jude Law manages to inject some charm and amiability into a role which appears designed solely to humiliate him. Clive Owen (disappointing since Croupier) is a sort of uber-Nic Cage, but overplays the machismo of his stock-in-trade to the near brink of comedy. Natalie Portman is faintly disturbing as the barely legal pole dancer and American enigma. The film is saved by the music of Damien Rice, which provides the first and last scenes with an emotional integrity otherwise entirely absent. But the decision to use The Smiths' How Soon Is Now as the elevator accompaniment to Clive and Natalie's strip club showdown will provoke righteous indignation amongst Morrissey fans. The lyrics are much, much better than the lines the actors are paid to recite.