Stuart: Uma Vida Revista

The first reel of this film is very deceiving: you might well think that it's a kind of dramedy, a clichéd story of a do-gooder yuppie activist expanding his horizons and finding his humanity through an acquaintance with a very quirky homeless man. But it's absolutely nothing of the sort. To judge by interviews with BBC producers, the director, and writer Alexander Masters, the final film matches the intentions they had from the start, to make something that wasn't easy and which captured this man Stuart Shorter in all his complexity.

Master's script is really compelling & tight. But it's the actors who drive the film: Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy together, more often than not in fairly tight sets merely talking. They were already both masters, back when this was filmed.

Tom Hardy's role here bears a vague resemblance to his work in Nicolas Refn's film Bronson; though I'd say that this film is even bleaker and more harrowing than Refn's. The eruption of Stuart's pain and self- hate is shocking, and Hardy doesn't ever hold back. The performance compares well to that of Robin Williams' in The Fisher King. In both cases, the actor enters a state that shocks you into concern for them rather than sitting in admiration of a modulated performance.

This is an incredibly bleak and brutal film, without the comfort of its having been a fiction.

Had this film been a big studio production Tom Hardy would have gained his first Oscar

This is the first time I've commented on IMDb but this film deserves to be seen by more people so I thought I'd give it another positive review. To begin with I thought Tom Hardy, who played Stuart, turned in an excellent performance and I'm sure we'll see plenty more from him in the future. Despite being a knife-wielding, psychopathic, booze hound even from the beginning, I felt empathy for his character, its hard not to. All of the acting is as good as the script allows but Hardys performance just shines through. However its really the story, told backwards, thats the reason this is such a enchanting film. Having read the book a couple of days ago i can also add this film, refreshingly, is very true to, and just as good as, the book. I've no idea if it was on TV or has been released on DVD, but if you get the chance watch this film, its thought provoking, heart wrenching, enthralling, funny, stomach churning, touching and it will be an eye opener to a lot of people.

WATCH THIS FILM!

I am always blown away by how Tom Hardy uses his voice & body to become a character, fictional or non-fictional. I can't wait to see another film with him in it...I've seen 'Mad Max:Fury Road', 'Dark Knight Rises', 'Inception' and 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', twice apiece. 'Legend' I have seen three times. He is an actor you just can't stop watching. I am very puzzled in the above list of plot keywords: pubic hair? male frontal nudity? Why are those the terms listed, instead of :alcoholism, addiction, friendship, childhood trauma? I do agree with the person who stated this a film most people should see. Addiction has a vice-like grip on large numbers of the globe at this time. This film could open eyes to how to navigate the social issue of addiction.

As Mark Twain once said, 'Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction', and that is certainly the case in Stuart: A Life Backwards.

A BBC Drama written by Alexander Masters, it is based on his acclaimed account of the real life of Stuart Shorter, a self-harming drug addict, career criminal (with a long history of violence), who is also homeless and suffers from muscular dystrophy.

This film, made for BBC TV, directed by veteran filmmaker David Attwood, is a dramatisation which skillfully and sinuously reconstructs the events that culminated in Alexander Masters publishing Stuart's unconventional biography. In an early scene, Stuart provides Alexander with the insight into how to write his unconventional book, 'Do it backwards...Like a murder mystery...what murdered the boy I was?' So Alexander sets out in this mode, trying to piece together the depressing, shocking trajectory of Stuart's life. But, unexpected to both men, in the process Stuart and Alexander become part of each other's life, transgressing socio-cultural boundaries and evolving a genuine, if eccentric, friendship.

This drama, unlike the majority of films based on extreme lives, does not simplify its subject, reducing its characters to two-dimensions eliciting cheap sentimentality. The characters in Stuart: A Life Backwards are not stripped of their complexities. Rather, they evince depth and subtlety. Stuart is not glamorised or victimised. He is vulgar, unfair, shockingly abusive, as well as sensitive, understanding and insightful. Nor is Masters made into a stock supporting character. He is at times the clear victim of middle class culture shock and has to fight his tendency to condescend. In short, they seem honest recreations of human beings.

Tom Hardy engages as Stuart, giving a tough and intelligent performance, and recreates his character's extreme physical traits with little mannerism. Benedict Cumberbatch also rises to his own, different challenge as Stuart's friend and witness with understatement and subtlety.

Stuart: A Life Backwards is a rare, droll, moving film that grows to understand the maddening complexity of life and subsequent near hopelessness in trying to find the factors behind someone's life. Instead, Stuart: A Life Backwards is a film about human diversity and the things we all share.