Tom Hardy: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

4. Forrest Bondurant - Lawless

Does Hardy have a thing for movies about criminals who are better know by their contemporary reputation than the crimes they actually committed? Three years before he played the Kray twins he starred in Lawless as Forrest Bondurant, the head of a trio of bootlegging brothers, For the role Hardy doubles down on being gruff and incomprehensible (not the best idea only a few months after The Dark Knight Rises), which on paper fits Forrest, but isn't delivered with enough flair here. Still bearing the muscle he put on for Bane, it's not his worst performance by a long shot, but out of all his films feels the one most like he's falling back on a type. The problem is nicely summed up by the film's "twist". Near the end Forrest is revealed to have totally bought into his own myth, actually believing he carried himself to the hospital with a slit throat when it was in fact Jessica Chastain's Maggie Beauford. It's an impactful reveal by itself, but Hardy's been so singularly focused throughout it doesn't carry the weight it should.