This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Overrated and overhyped

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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.

A wonderful story told in a superb manner. WHY WHY hasn't this movie gone beyond UK. Unfortunately i have to say I saw this story on Youtube during my search of Tom Hardy movies after watching Warrior. I was completely mesmerized by the acting in this movie by both leading actors. Tom brought his soul into his character and I felt I knew what his Stuart was thinking just by his expressions etc. Tom Hardy is definitely someone to look out for, not for anything but his true ability to 'act'. I only wish I had the opportunity to see him on stage one day. This story is a must for all to see, see the story about faces of the people you walk past in the streets each day, the people that you ignore and forget about it. I highly recommend you take the time to watch it.

Really worth watching. A great performance by Tom Hardy (it's serious but the comic parts are done very brilliantly too, with a touch of Boycie from Only Fools and Horses). Benedict Cumberbatch was very good.The greatest thing here is the script. And the greatest lines come from Stuart Shorter. He seems like he was a very intelligent and very capable man who had a hard life and who made some bad choices. The film neither glorifies nor judges, just presents. Very good writing (or transcribing from the man) and good film making.Really worth watching.

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.