When people talk about the English actor, Tom Hardy, the characters that most often come to mind are Bane, Batman’s mask-wearing arch-nemesis in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), or Charles Bronson, the notorious violent prisoner in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson (2008). But a performance of Hardy’s that unduly slips under the radar is that of Stuart Shorter, a homeless alcoholic with a traumatic past, in the British TV movie, Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007).
Alongside an ever adept Benedict Cumberbatch, Hardy touchingly and convincingly brings the character to life, through a striking mixture of vulnerability and aggression. Stuart is a complex and contradictory soul, gentle and softly spoken yet prone to violent outbursts. The performance allows the audience, simultaneously with Cumberbatch’s Alexander, to unwrap the rough, profanity-ridden exterior of the worn-skinned, lager-holding homeless man to find a sweet, funny and caring individual. Hardy’s Stuart mumbles and swears his way through this personal story with subtle intelligence and creativity, imparting intuitive ideas, and, though ravaged by drug and alcohol abuse, his mind seems sharply focussed on what he believes in and his principles. The catalogue of idiosyncrasies that Hardy portrays, like the omission of strange noises of surprise and pleasure, never come across as staged or artificial but real and natural.
So this film is a must see for any Hardy fans out there. It is unpretentious, unsentimental yet terribly moving, heartfelt and gritty, and a story that brings both laughter and tears. And this neglected performance needs to be brought into the light.
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