This 2013 chamber piece takes place entirely within the interior of a car and follows Hardy as the titular Ivan Locke, a construction foreman who attempts to save his job and marriage over the course of a series of phone calls on his commute from Birmingham to London. We’ll start with one of the easiest performances to understand: Locke requires Hardy to be coherent, because he’s talking the entire time.
So if you’re looking to pop in a Tom Hardy movie but are wondering whether or not you should turn on the subtitles, we’ve conveniently ranked the weirdest Hardy performances by how hard it is to understand what he’s saying. It’s quite impressive that one of today’s greatest living actors seems to be swinging for the fences with each performance, and Hardy’s been the star of some of the best films of the past couple decades. Whether his face is covered with a mask, he’s trying a new peculiar accent or he’s mumbling under his breath, it’s always clear Hardy is saying something with conviction - it’s just that most of the time we have no idea what that is.
Right after Capone’s trailer was dropped online, fans were eager to voice their enthusiasm and skepticism about the actor’s latest silly voice.Ĭapone is the most recent in a series of idiosyncratic character roles in which Hardy is largely unintelligible. Hardy’s been recognized by critics and awards bodies as one of the brightest leading men of his generation, but despite a series of acclaimed performances, his often strange vocal choices have become a running internet joke.īetween his nearly indiscernible mumbling as Batman nemesis Bane to his much parodied Brooklyn accent in Venom, Hardy’s strange accents often dominate the conversation around his films. Mostly Legend just lurches.This past week saw the release of the Al Capone biopic Capone, but those looking for a grim, gritty story of how the notorious gangster rose to power in Chicago may be sorely disappointed - the film instead depicts an aging Capone who luxuriates in his Florida estate and has all but lost his memory (as well as control of his bowels).Īt the center of this story, hiding behind several layers of prostheses and makeup, is one of the biggest movie stars in the world: Tom Hardy. But that scene – smooth as butter, the film’s best – is the exception. When Helgeland holds his concentration, he delivers a nifty, unbroken slink through a nightclub that spotlights every side of Reggie’s warring personalities – the cool-headed club owner, the curling-fisted crime boss, and the sweet guy falling stupid in love. For the film itself, the measuring of time – how it unfolds onscreen, and what takes place offscreen – is a problem. The look is spot-on – these cat-eyelined ladies with their bouffants, hunched gangsters in smoky barrooms – yet Carter Burwell’s uncharacteristically plodding score is oddly out of time. It packs a punch, but it lends the film more gravitas then it’s probably earned. For much of the film, it’s a niggling question – why precisely is Helgeland favoring her perspective? Eventually, we get an answer. Together, these three make a combustible love triangle: the gangster turned accidental romantic, the girl who makes him promise he’ll go straight, and the unhinged gorilla he has pledged to protect since they shared a womb.Īs the Krays expand their empire, Frances supplies a running commentary via voiceover, spoon-feeding expository details (which turns out to be a boon between the heavy East End accents and Hardy’s signature growly mumble, the lack of enunciation renders whole chunks of dialogue unknowable), as well as filling in any blanks that writer/director Brian Helgeland (who won the Oscar for his script for L.A. Hair-trigger Ronnie – he’s the one in glasses also: certifiably insane – moves with a thug’s lumber but sounds like he’s caught a permanent case of the sniffles. Reggie, the brains of the operation, has an easy gait and a confidential lean-in when he’s courting Frances (Browning), a delicate neighborhood girl who catches his eye.
Hardy differentiates the two characters with his body and voice work, plus a helpful pair of Sixties-era browline spectacles. But if this movie makes it into his future highlight reel, it’ll be for level of difficulty, not because the film itself has made much of a bid for posterity. Two Tom Hardys for the price of one certainly sounds like a steal of a deal. He’s been drawn to both of those types again and again ( Bronson, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road) and plays both here, pulling double duty as London’s infamous Kray twins, Reggie and Ronald.
Probably – and one suspects rightfully – the word “legend” will be used five or six decades from now, when Tom Hardy dodders onstage to accept his lifetime achievement award for a screen career portraying criminals and psychopaths.