Supreme Law

How did the lithe British chameleon Jude Law come to star in nearly every film this year?

By Nathan Lee

Nov. 11, 2004 | FACTS
Jude Law was born at the tail end of 1972, one of the most sexed-up years in popular movie history: "Deliverance," "Cabaret," "Deep Throat," "Last Tango in Paris." As a young man, he starred in a popular British soap opera before finding fame on Broadway opposite Kathleen Turner in Jean Cocteau's "Indiscretions." He spent most of the first scene of the second act naked in a bathtub. Obviously, he was nominated for a Tony.

Throughout the 1990s he gave notable performances in films of various quality: "Wilde," "Gattaca," "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," "Existenz," "The Talented Mr. Ripley." One of these, "Existenz," is a masterpiece, but it was "Ripley" that nudged him onto the Hollywood A-list, and earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. (Sheer madness that Miramax didn't secure him a win over Michael Caine in "The Cider House Rules.")

At the start of the new millennium, he played a gangster ("Love, Honor, and Obey"), a sniper ("Enemy at the Gates"), and a robot built for sex ("A.I.: Artificial Intelligence"). Now he is ubiquitous. Six major movies in 2004 -- "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "I Heart Huckabees," "Alfie" and the upcoming "Closer," "The Aviator" and the animated "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," in which he contributes the voice of Lemony Snicket -- cover stories on all the big glossies, a ranking (his second) on People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" list.

"He has beauty with an edge," said Anthony Minghella, the man who made him a superstar. "He's unbearably handsome."

PHYSIQUE
Jude Law is lithe, agile, quick at the ankle; in "A.I.," he is consciously imitating both Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Excepting his creepy baldness in "Road to Perdition," his hair is a dense mass of dirty gold curls. In "Existenz," the passage from mundane reality to the excitements of virtual reality is signaled by an increased buoyancy of his coif.

Beneath two perfect parabolic eyebrows sit the virtuoso eyes, ready with fire or ice. His eye work in "Ripley" is a bright metamorphic tour de force -- from sparklers to sponges to a Medusa stone curse. Under the eyes, however, there are always bags, often dark -- a flaw! As early as "Wilde" they are prominent, lending a smear of the louche, a hint of the hangover, a possible sign of depleted dopamine (from last night's exertions?). The "A.I." makeup department managed to take all the color out of them, but the puffiness can still be detected. His eyelids have a tendency to rapidly flutter under stress or excitement.

When enraged or singing, his mouth becomes weirdly too large and round -- a distortion of his otherwise immaculate proportions.

He is of average height. His torso is unusually hirsute for a pinup of his kind.

FLAIR
In the biopic "Wilde," Jude Law plays Lord Alfred Douglas as a piece of erotic statuary that occasionally explodes into petulance, and his introduction to Oscar (Stephen Fry) is the most dazzling entrance of his career. The premiere of his "Lady Windermere's Fan" has just brought down the house. Oscar (and the camera) are drawn toward the mesmeric lad, who responds with a nearly imperceptible tilt of the head. Otherwise he stands firm, blazing challenge from his sapphire eyes.

"You draw blood," he compliments the chubby wit. "It's magnificent." (Law's three most commanding verbal acts in the film are his pronunciations of "superb," "delightful" and "magnificent.") Then comes a spellbinding monologue made of flattery, harangue and narcissistic fit. He spins through a rapid pinwheel of effects, a brilliant burst of moods: avid, caustic, impudent, enthusiastic, dismissive, impish, smug, self-pitying, vulnerable, aloof, more -- all at once. Both Wilde and "Wilde" never quite recover.

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