Rapid Review: Legend (2015)

“Life isn’t always what we want it to be.”
– Reggie Kray

SYNOPSIS: Focusing on the relationship between Reggie Kray and Frances Shea, told from France’s’ point of view as someone who knew him best, as well as the mental health issues Ronnie Kray faced and their rise to power as the notorious gangsters of London. – via IMDB

I have been waiting for this movie for sometime because, let’s face it, double Tom Hardy in a film? Sign me right up! And I don’t even say that just for… aesthetic purposes either, because that is something I have only very recently come to appreciate. Now, moving right on from that, let’s look at the movie itself. Okay, pit stop – how ridiculously hot is Hardy in a suit?! I know that Reggie was a bastard, fine, but damn, Hardy just physically made him massively appealing. Okay, okay, really now, back to the movie. I think that this movie gets way more flak than it deserves. I found it to be entertaining, and did not really paint these guys to be amazing or awesome or anything, because heck, they weren’t, but the movie shows these guys and their issues and how they are with each other, and it was highly entertaining to watch. I know it sounds awful, but Hardy’s turn as Ronnie Kray had me laughing at times. He was unstable, but when they went to that bar for the meeting and his immense displeasure at the lack of guns for a shootout really cracked me up. Hardy overall delivered a powerhouse performance of note here. We all know the man is immensely talented, we do, but to see him take on two roles, these twins, in one movie was something. On sight you knew exactly which Kray twin you were dealing with. He had mannerisms for both, styles of talking, the clothes, the posture, everything. I was completely amazed. Whatever people may think about this movie, it has to be seen for Hardy’s performances at the very least. Emily Browning is an actress that pops up on my screen from time to time, but not someone I actively seek out. I must say that I found her to be incredibly dull here. I must say that the writing may not be the tightest in the world, but I did not find it as scattered as some people have complained about. I followed what was going on, even though it did jump quickly from violence to humour to romance, I didn’t have a big issue with it. Not the greatest movie, not the worst movie, not deserving of the hate it receives – I liked it, I didn’t love it. I think it was a pity that this became a love story instead of really digging into the source material. There was just so much more potential to have worked with. I expected a gangster films with more, well, gansterness to it, not this romance stuff, but I will survive. Legend did not paint these brothers in a particularly good light at all, so while we may laugh and all, one cannot deny that these two were horrible. Oh well, you aren’t just a mobster in power for nothing, I suppose.

Okay, now, let me just get right down to this whole Tom Hardy… study.

How do you even resist this outside your window?!

Oh. My. Goodness.

The confidence. That is all.