Critics have debated Harry Styles’ performance, but his portrayal of Tom as a man of few words is deliberate. Tom is inarticulate; he doesn't have the vocabulary for what he feels. He loves Patrick’s sophistication but is terrified by it. He loves Marion’s safety but is bored by it. Tom is the wounded animal of the group—a man who inflicts pain not out of malice, but because he has no tools for honesty.