A writer takes a backwards look at the life of his unlikely friend, Stuart, a homeless alcoholic who experienced a traumatic childhood event.A writer takes a backwards look at the life of his unlikely friend, Stuart, a homeless alcoholic who experienced a traumatic childhood event.A writer takes a backwards look at the life of his unlikely friend, Stuart, a homeless alcoholic who experienced a traumatic childhood event.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 6 wins & 1 nomination total
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- Writer
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Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsWhen Alexander lets Stuart into his house for the first time (about 7-8 minutes into the film) the shadow of the camera falls on the door as he closes it.
- Quotes
Alexander Masters: If you had to change one thing about your life, what would it be?
Stuart Shorter: Well, how much is one thing?
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojoUK: Top 5 Tom Hardy Films You've Never Seen (2018)
Featured review
Brutally human...and offers no easy answers
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.
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.
helpful•112
- tohu777
- May 22, 2015
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- Stuart: Gerisin Geriye Bir Hayat
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer