Review: Legend (2015)

The story of The Kray twins, cockney gangsters in Swinging 60s London. Enterprising Reggie Kray (Tom Hardy) is the outwardly respectable, but brutal and utterly ruthless operator, whilst Ronnie (also played by Hardy) is a troubled homosexual and frankly an unhinged psychopath, who had a stay in an insane asylum, and probably ought to have stayed there permanently. Emily Browning plays Frances, the innocent young woman whom Reggie romances, but who he also attempts to keep in the dark about his lawless pursuits. It’s her narration we hear throughout the film. David Thewlis plays a business associate of Reggie’s (whom Ronnie is deeply suspicious/paranoid of), Taron Egerton plays Ronnie’s lover (and chief thug), Paul Bettany plays a rival gangster, Colin Morgan plays Frances’ brother, Tara Fitzgerald is Frances’ unimpressed mother, whilst Chazz Palminteri plays a visiting Vegas mobster, Sam Spruell plays dumb criminal ‘Jack the Hat’ (who forever seems to cop a beating from at least one of the Kray twins) and Christopher Eccleston is a determined Scotland Yard copper seemingly always three steps behind the brothers.

 

Tom Hardy is clearly a very talented, charismatic actor. Writer-director Brian Helgeland wrote the screenplay to the very well-received “L.A. Confidential”. The subject matter is the story of the Kray twins, who are potentially interesting characters. For some reason, though, this 2015 film slightly disappoints. You keep waiting for it to take off, and it never quite does. Perhaps this is because as told here, the story/plot is far less interesting than the characters actually inhabiting it. Hell, even the characters I think are a tad misrepresented here. The twins’ mother, usually playing a large role in their story, is relegated to cameo status here and more importantly, used to paint the psychologically fragile Ronnie as a mummy’s boy. That’s a bit on the nose, though it has to be said that Helgeland softens Reggie a tad too, if you ask me, probably because he wanted to focus the film more on the Reggie-Frances relationship than it perhaps should’ve. Still, at least he didn’t cast a couple of Britpop boy band members to play the twins. I guess that’s something.

 

Tom Hardy does as well as anyone can when assigned the tough task of playing two twins with decidedly different temperaments and psychological makeup. It’s almost entirely to his credit that the film is at least watchable. Yes, his portrayal walks the tightrope fraught with caricatured danger, but he narrowly avoids slipping into mere two-dimensional impersonation, and I doubt anyone else could pull it off. There are moments where the techniques used to have the two characters interact one another are a little obvious, but for the most part it works and it doesn’t take long for you to just go with it. There’s a funny extended fight between the two brothers that is one of the film’s best scenes, mainly because there’s also a sad undercurrent to it.

 

Also impressive in the cast are the always solid David Thewlis, a well-cast Chazz Palminteri, and a surprisingly strong Taron Egerton, who gives his best performance to date. Sam Spruell is also well-cast as a punching bag, but he, the underrated Paul Bettany, and Christopher Eccleston get the fuzzy end of the lollipop. It was a genius idea to bring in the very Dusty Springfield-esque Welsh singer Duffy, who as far as I’m concerned is a hundred times the talent the late Amy Winehouse (the other person Duffy frequently gets compared to) ever was. Playing 60s singer Timi Yuro (who was apparently a favourite of one of the Krays), she brings the right sound and flavour to the film for sure. As for Australian actress Emily Browning, she’s awfully flat and the decision to have her character narrate events that she was often not present for, was a poor one. I also found her too petite and uncomfortably child-like in appearance to be believable in this setting (She looks like a 12 year-old, but thankfully, unlike “Sleeping Beauty”, we don’t see her naked here).

 

Hardy is as good as anyone could be in playing two very different twin characters, but this film is just shy of a recommendation for me. The film looks terrific, and characters aren’t without interest, but their story as told here fails to draw you in much. A must for diehard Tom Hardy fans, others might struggle as this one’s not as good as you probably think it should be.

 

Rating: C+