No, not Jude the Obscure, Hardy's melancholy hero, but Hey, Jude, the Beatles' song from 1968. But how could anyone have expected obscurity from this intensely on-fire actor? In just a few years, the south-east Londoner has proved himself one of the few modern actors with a confident grasp of old-fashioned charisma. He has a way of seizing films that reminds one of Blackbeard with treasure. There is a zeal for attention in his eyes reminiscent of Tyrone Power or Errol Flynn (who has portrayed rather well in The Aviator), yet Law is so much more up-to-date in his attitudes and prickly smarts. There has as yet been no one film that opts for his power, nerve, and witty stare. But they will come. Meanwhile, he has the slightly awkward ability to unbalance movies that try to keep him on a leash.

The child of teachers, he entered the National Youth Music Theatre in London, and in 1990 he got a role in the British TV soap Families. He went on stage and did Indiscretions in London and New York. His movie career began with Shopping (94, Paul Anderson III); I Love You, I Love You Not (96, Billy Hopkins), where he played opposite Claire Danes; outstanding, lovely, and dangerous, as Lord Alfred Douglas in Wilde (97, Brian Gilbert); Gattaca (97, Andrew Niccol), the first film in which his steel gaze was used as something more than human; a smaller role in Bent (97, Sean Mathias); the best thing in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (97, Clint Eastwood); Music from Another Room (98, Charlie Peters); a vampire in The Wisdom of Crocodiles (98, Po-Chih Leong); eXistenZ (99, David Cronenberg), with another venture beyond ordinary limits.

His breakthrough came as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley (99, Anthony Minghella). Much as I admire that film (and Matt Damon in it), it's hard to escape the feeling that the picture loses some drive and fascination when Dickie dies. It's a measure of how seldom we see raw human vitality on screen these days. He then did Love, Honor and Obey (99, Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis); the marksman in Enemy at the Gates (01, Jean-Jacques Annaud); a dazzling Gigolo Joe in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (01, Steven Spielberg), where his role is unnecessary to the plot but vital to any hope of pleasure.

2004 saw the first real setback in his career with the absolutely idiotic idea of releasing five of his movies in six months! On Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, I Heart Huckabees, Alfie, Closer and The Aviator were a definate mixed bunch when each is taken on its own. And ok, he made them over two years, but the decision for them to come out so close to each other over exposed Law and his performance in Alfie begged the question for the first time: can Law carry a major film on his own? The answer was: not yet.

Indeed, Law was on a hiding to nothing making Alfie. For all his abilities he's no Michael Caine.

Time will tell whether his career gets back on track but he's still not quite at the top of the premier league of bankable mainstream stars. Tom Cruise still reigns supreme.