Blood is thicker than water.

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2015)

The Kray twins have a fascinating story which has been told many times, but I always like to see true life stories about people like this because it is almost guaranteed to keep me interested. When I saw that Tom Hardy would be betraying both Ronnie and Reggie i was completely sold on the film and couldn't wait to see it.
From the trailer what we are shown is a story that focuses on these two as individuals tearing up the streets of London, but we do get something quite different from that. Less focus was put into the empire of the notorious gangsters and what we get is more of a story that revolves around the marriage and relationship of Reggie Kray and his wife Frances. This was actually a very pleasant surprise and I loved seeing how she was coping with the empire, plus the almost love triangle between herself, Ronnie and Reggie. Having an 18 rating I expected the film to be incredibly violent and have a no- holds barred feel to it. It seems a bit weird that a film that it almost tame with its violence gets the same rating as something like A Clockwork Orange. This isn't a complaint, but it was what i expected is the point i am making. The gorgeous Emily Browning does a great job at portraying the tragic Frances and really puts us in the character's shoes to get a feel of what life would be like if your husband were a (in)famous gangster. So, in my opinion a very good move on the film-makers.
The thing that arguably mattered most though was Hardy's portrayal of both twins. With a film like the Social Network where Armie Hammer portrays twins, we can see he has done a good job but it is hard to tell between the two. What Tom Hardy does best here is he gives each character a very different personality and we almost forget that we are only watching one actor. I was worried Ronnie's portrayal in particular would annoy me because Hardy puts on a thick accent and looked as if he would play it too over the top. He doesn't and actually managed to make the character very threatening as well as hilarious. I couldn't imagine another actor being able to pull off what he did here and if I had my way Hardy would be nominated for an Oscar just for going from the smooth almost likable Reggie to nutcase Ronnie in seconds. Also, there is an incredible fight scene in a pub where the twins are battering each other.. it is literally Tom Hardy fighting himself. Think Fight Club, but actually real.
All in all, Legend was a very good film and a great look into the lives of these characters. Tom Hardy gives us one of 2015's best performances and whilst we don't see much really of the empire these men built, what we did get to see was something refreshing and new. Was glad to see Taron Egerton get a role in this film too, the guy needs to be in more after his performance in Kingsman. Legend had a very Clockwork Orange type suspension vibe to it and i dug that. I recommend this film purely to see Tom Hardy absolutely kill it in the dual role and there is a lot more to like about the film where that came from.