Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007)

The Worst Film Ever

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film starts of as a boring film about a charity worker writing a book about a homeless guy, Stuart, at one point about 10 minutes in Stuart tells him how awful such a book would be – man he got that right. The film goes on to save a little bit of cash buy substituting expensive flash-back sequences (that might require additional actors) by poor quality cartoons. The film progresses to get worse from that point.If you really want to listen to the fairly realistic but random ramblings of a drunk homeless guy, set within a low budget film, this is the one for you. For EVERYONE else I suggest doing the world a favour by going to the supermarket/video-store and destroying all copies of this "film".After watching half of the film I managed to convince my wife to press stop and cut our losses, so there is a chance, although unlikely, that the second half of the film is the best film in cinematic history, I'll not be renting the film again to find out.

This BBC movie is fabulous. It's a true story, based on the book of the same title. Tom Hardy is Stuart Shorter, a gifted but troubled homeless man.Benedict Cumberbatch is author Alexander Masters, who accidentally befriends him and finds him delightful company.This is a must-see for fans of either of those actors. Unexpected, real, quirky, funny, touching, and weird or occasionally disturbing, but not excessively so. Mainly fascinating.It's very well acted, and a moving film.The film unfolds in a fascinating way, and is easy to follow and understand, while at the same time being very moving. Definitely worth seeking out and viewing!

"My name is Psycho but you can call me Stuart if you want."Before his breakout role in Bronson, Tom Hardy showed his true potential in a small made for TV film, Stuart A Life Backwards. He co-stared along another relatively unknown at the time, Benedict Cumberbatch (at least outside of Great Britain). These are two huge A-list actors today who have starred as villains in blockbusters like Star Trek Into Darkness and The Dark Knight Rises among many other great films. So I was immediately attracted to this film when I heard it starred these two actors. It is a biography of a troubled alcoholic and homeless man named Stuart(Tom Hardy) who establishes a friendship with a writer and charity worker named Alexander (Benedict Cumberbatch). We've seen these dramatic films exploring similar issues of unlikely friendships done before, but Stuart gives it a unique twist by telling the story beginning from the back. Because lets face it when we first meet someone like Stuart we are shocked at their current condition and we take little time to try to figure out what may have caused this strange behavior. We see who the person is at the present and by establishing a relationship we slowly begin to uncover things about their past, and that is exactly how Alexander presents Stuart to the audience. Stuart is a rather unconventional character, and Tom Hardy plays him brilliantly. He is an alcoholic who suffers from violent outbreaks. He also has suicide tendencies and suffers from muscular dystrophy which has taken its toll on him. But most of the time Stuart is a kind man with a dry sense of humor. He tells his story in a rather funny way adding a tragicomic touch to this film. Despite the strong performances from Cumberbatch and Hardy the film works mostly because of the way the film is narrated. As we learn more about Stuarts past we begin to sympathize with him and realize where he is coming from. It isn't a great film, but it is solid and it showed the true potential these lead actors had. The film does feel a bit rushed at times and it suffers from trying to add a lot of information in only 90 minutes, making some scenes feel chopped and forced. Director David Attwood benefits mostly from this emotional true story and these two actors, who happened to be the main attraction for me and the reason why this film is getting some distribution currently on HBO. It isn't a perfect film, but it has a masterful physical performance delivered by Hardy who was just getting warmed up for his upcoming and breakout role in Bronson. I really loved the quirky approach the film took in telling this true story (which was actually based on the successful biography written by Alexander Masters), but it's far from being a perfect and memorable film. The animated scenes that Attwood decided to introduce to tell some parts of the story were a bit disturbing and took me out of the movie at times. But every time I was let down by these scenes, Tom Hardy showed up with another impressive scene and brought me right back in. It is a masterful performance and one that shows his unique talent as an actor. I am also thankful I watched this film with subtitles because sometimes it was difficult to understand what he was mumbling about, but it was still great voice work from his part. Cumberbatch played a more restricted character, but he also has some emotional scenes near the end where he proves he's a talented actor. It is a film worth checking out if you are a fan of these actors.

Alexander Master's book, Stuart: A Life Backwards, is a masterpiece and probably influences my rating here but I think this adaptation for the BBC captures all the elements of the story extremely well. Whilst some of the detail of the tragic events of Stuart's childhood are given little airtime, the impression is not lost and reflects the need to stick to 90 minutes per the BBC's commission rather than being the result misguiding adaptation.The viewer is taken on a trip through the downs and downs of Stuart's incomprehensibly tough upbringing in reverse, starting with his present day life as a psychotic homeless junkie and moving back towards the climax of the movie which is the horrific abuse he suffered so young in his short life and how his dependence on the drug of violence was initially catalysed.Stuart is superbly played by Tom Hardy and whilst it can take a while to tune in to his often quiet and Muscular Dystrophy affected voice, ultimately it only reflects on the quality of the performance that this aspect was not compromised for the viewers.I was less satisfied by the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as Alexander, the author who befriends Stuart through the biographical process. I'm sure he plays Alexander very accurately but I found it harder to believe in this character.Finally, I wish the movie had focused more on the possible reasons for the final outcome. The book spends a good deal of time on the epilogue and when watching with my wife who had not read the book, I felt that I needed to explain more than perhaps ought to have been necessary. Having spoken to the director, David Attwood, he did convince me to a degree that it was better this way.Regardless, as a self-contained piece of work, the movie is an amazing piece of work for all concerned and it deserves all the plaudits and credit it has received; not least for the input of Stuart's family and Alexander himself. I don't recall watching such a good TV movie in many many years Stuart Shorter, rest in peace; it wasn't your fault.