Right, I’ve not posted a review for a while so here’s the
roundup of films I either saw too late or didn’t bother seeing but might be of
some interest:
Ant-Man – pretty damn good and somehow the second best Iron
Man movie. 7.5/10
Man from UNCLE – wanted to see it but didn’t. I imagine it’s
probably a 7/10, and I’ve never been wrong before.
Fant4stic – didn’t see it, didn’t want to see it and by all
accounts it’s crap. I’ll give it a 4/10 for the sake of a pun.
Anyway, on to business.
1.
Protagonist
Weird accent and violent role enthusiast Tom Hardy plays
both of the Kray twins, but most of the film is based around Reggie Kray (the one in the red tie) – who has
a normal cockney accent and is only a little bit violent… comparatively.
The main crux of the plot is the relationship which develops
between Reggie and Frances Shea (played by Emily Browning – who you might remember
from playing Violet Baudelaire in the A
Series of Unfortunate Events film they should have made a sequel to), and
how his life as a gangster is affected by it.
The character is romanticised quite a bit so the audience
actually likes him – he is a violent criminal, after all – but the charisma
seems well earned and you buy that he’s the leader of his gang and community.
1 Mark
2.
Antagonist
Christopher Ecclestone (aka no-one’s favourite Doctor Who) plays
the copper who’s charged with investigating the Kray twins, and if you’ve seen
Peaky Blinders then his character will feel very familiar to Sam Neill’s
Northern Irish policeman – in fact, the tone of this movie is quite similar to
that show and a few actors cross over, including Tom Hardy (duh) and Paul
Anderson (who played the moustachioed Arthur Shelby). There’s also a cameo from
Welsh pop-star Duffy, but that’s not particularly important.
Where was I? Oh, yeah – so crap Doctor Who only really has a
small role in the film, seeing as they’ve got to give Tom Hardy two roles as
well as a love interest and find time to flesh out his gang, but with the
limited screen time he’s given he does a serviceable job. Nothing spectacular,
but there’s a scene where he explains to Reggie Kray exactly why he’s got such
a hard-on for him and his brother and the motivation and sense of conflict is
interesting – it’s just a shame it wasn’t really expanded on in more depth.
Half a Mark
3.
Secondary
Characters
Ronnie Kray (again, played by Tom Hardy) is the mentally
unstable and pretty much psychopathic twin brother of Reggie – and he’s also
the source of most of the films funny moments. For all the efforts Reggie makes
to move their enterprise in more legitimate directions, Ronnie seems determined
to maintain the gangster aspect of their existence. I don’t want to spoil too
much about Ronnie’s part in the film, as much of the plot revolved around his
interactions with his brother.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Tom Hardy is the
best British actor working today. He may pick eccentric roles and make some odd
choices, but watching Legend you sometimes have to remind yourself that he’s
playing both roles – he’s that good that it feels like its two completely
different actors. Sitting in the second row from the front, you could see each
twin even has different teeth!
Frances Shea is the love interest that the emotional core of
the film hangs on, but sometimes it’s hard to empathise with her. The movie does
a great job of showing the development of the romance, but when times
inevitably get hard you do sit there and think ‘hey, you knew he was a violent
criminal gangster from the moment you met him’. Of course, that doesn’t excuse Reggie’s
abusive behaviour but it almost glamorises domestic violence by having the
audience get back on Reggie’s side after everything comes crashing down.
All in all, Emily Browning does a great job in the role you
do sympathise with and like the character a lot.
1 Mark
4.
Plot
The story begins with the Kray twins already established in
the East End; Ronnie is in psychiatric care (not for long) and Reggie is
keeping the community and his club ticking over, while charmingly dealing with
determined police. So no origin story about how Tom Hardy was bitten by two
radioactive criminals, causing him to split in two, unfortunately.
Throughout the film, there’s a great balance of humour,
violence and romance that should appease most general audiences. The running
time is fairly long, but the story is interesting enough and the performances dynamic
enough that you never look at your phone to check the time.
The only real issue is that there’s not much of a conclusion
except a voice-over and some bullet points about what happened to the Kray twins
in later life – which would have been fine if Ronnie was given any sort of
closure on his side of the story. As it stands, Reggie gets a full plot thread,
but Ronnie is just kind of there to watch.
Half a Mark
5.
Action
Like most Tom Hardy films, there’s a few great punch ups in
Legend. Who needs to see skyscrapers come crashing down when you can see Tom
Hardy bottle Tom Hardy over the head?
The best action scene of the film is when the twins attend
what was slated as peace-meeting between their gang and a rival one. I won’t
spoil what happens but it starts of hilarious and ends brutally.
There’s not an overload of fight scenes, but the three main
ones are very satisfying and well crafted. Some people might complain that
there wasn’t as much action as they’d anticipated, but this is a case of
quality over quantity.
So, a paranoid schizophrenic walks into a bar…
1 Mark
6.
Drama
The main dramatic beats centre around the relationships
between Reggie and Frances, and the twins themselves.
It’s established early on that both Ronnie and Frances are
mentally fragile – Ronnie more obviously and dangerously so. You almost get the
feeling there’s going to be an ‘Of Mice and Men’ moment between the two
brothers (or a Carol and Lizzie moment, for you Walking Dead fans out there),
but rightly or wrongly, Reggie’s loyalty pervades and the consequences for such
an apparently unbreakable bond between two violent people prove disastrous for
anyone connected to them.
As the film goes on and Reggie and Frances move past the
honeymoon period, the reality of life alongside a criminal eventually sets in.
Broken promises, legal problems, feelings of inadequacy and isolation become
Frances fate until she finds her resolve – however misguided it ends up being.
As fun as the film is, it’s a biopic, so don’t necessarily expect
a happy ending.
1 Mark
7.
Comedy
As said earlier, most of the comedic moments come from
Ronnie Kray and his love of being a celebrity-like gangster. And his sexuality –
there’s a few scarily funny moments centred around that aspect of Ronnie, too.
There’s not really much I can elaborate on in regards to the
film’s sense of humour – much of it is character and plot related, so
discussing it in any kind of depth would potentially spoil aspects of the
story.
All I’ll say is don’t bring a rolling pin to a shootout.
1 Mark
8.
Romance
The romance is the main focus of the story, and it plays out
very well. You see how and why Reggie and Frances fall for each other and how
why things fall apart. I mentioned earlier that occasionally it was difficult
to empathise with Frances, due to her knowingly getting involved with a violent
criminal, but if you can’t sympathise with all of her actions, you at least can
with her motivations and the decisions she takes.
Certain moments may make you doubt whether Reggie really
cared for Frances at all, but the finale of the film makes absolutely sure you
know he did, even if it doesn’t excuse the pain he caused her.
1 Mark
9.
Pacing
The film has a pretty weak voice over from Frances Shea,
which could have been cut in all honesty – it doesn’t add much that the scenes don’t
already deliver visually. I said before that the running time seemed quite long
for a general audience, even if the level of interest never really drops.
The pacing throughout the film’s middle is spot on, but the
voice over slows down the beginning and the end just sort of cuts off, so I can’t
give out a full mark – I’m not made of them, you know!
Half a Mark
10.
Re-watch-ability
If you’re a Tom Hardy fan, it is definitely worth another
watch, even if just to try and spot the subtle mannerisms in his duel
performance that separates each twin. There’s enough engaging dialogue, action
and humour to make you want to come back for another viewing while it’s still
on the big screen.
But then again, if you’re the kind of person who prefers the
more lavish big-screen affairs (aka a Tom Hardy hater), perhaps a film so
performance based only really warrants a single watch before the DVD release.
Half a Mark
All in all, Legend is a pretty damn good film and you won’t
leave disappointed.
Final Score: 8/10
