8 Reasons Why Tom Hardy Will Be The Biggest Actor Of 2015

2. ...Even In Otherwise Average Films

Child 44, the long-delayed adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's serial killer novel, didn't exactly 'connect' with critics when it was released last month. In spite of a great cast (including Hardy, Gary Oldman and Noomi Rapace), a great premise (the film is set in Soviet Russia under Stalin's reign, where murder is dismissed as a "capitalist disease") and a talented screenwriter (The Wire's Richard Price), the film suffered greatly from flabby execution and poor direction by Daniel Espinosa. Critics and audiences shrugged it off. If one person emerged unscathed from the critical savaging of Child 44, though, it was Tom Hardy. In the lead role of MGB investigator Leo Demidov, Hardy is fearsome, magnetic, uncontrollably charismatic - he is, like greats such as Brando, Pacino and De Niro before him, capable of elevating otherwise average material into something compellingly watchable whenever he's on-screen. Though Hardy has a good deal more promising movies coming to screens this year, it could be said that the greatest test of an actor is how well they fare coming out of a disaster. In that case, Child 44, despite its general status as a flop, is Tom Hardy's first hit of 2015.