A good film, but not a great film

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2016)

'Legend' is easily better than the 1990 piece of crap, 'The Krays'. But unfortunately that's a very low bar.
Whilst this movie sticks to the facts rather than 'the legend', it just tells the wrong story.
It tells the story of the Kray brothers, in their mid-career period in the 60s, from the point of view of Reggie Kray's girlfriend (then later wife) Frances Shea.
And, well ... there's no nice way to put this:
She's a very boring, uninteresting person.
I don't know if its Sophie Ellis-Bextor ... sorry Emily Browning's performance, or the script she was given, or if Frances was pretty much just so ordinary that there was no reason for the story to dwell on her at all. Because there's no reason for the story to dwell on her at all.
Consequently the entire film feels like it's blundering around with this giant millstone around its neck. That's for starters: it then proceeds to tell pretty much the least interesting anecdotes of the Kray brothers' part in London history.
And this gets especially frustrating when you start to realise the sheer quantity of genius-level acting ability available here, including Tom Hardy, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston and a huge, talented supporting cast of names and faces.
Pretty much, all of it goes to waste ...
... but not quite.
The things that keep it floating along are Tom Hardy's Ronnie and Reggie, the side performances (doing the best they can with, frankly, not the greatest material), and the way 60s London is presented: everything is fresh, everything is new, the wallpaper, the cars, the skirts, it's all state-of-the-art rather than nostalgia.
All of that is enough to make the film watchable, but not enough to propel it into fascination. Missed scenes due to checking messages and fetching snacks generally aren't worth the effort to go back and retrieve.
If you're looking for machine-guns and broken kneecaps, sorry it's not here - what's here is, instead, almost a soap-opera.
Furthermore, the twins effects don't always work. There are times it really does not feel like the two Tom Hardy's are in the same room, and with cheap efforts like 'Orphan Black' pulling it off perfectly there isn't much excuse for a 2015 high-production film.
Tom Hardy, as far as I'm concerned, is a new superman of acting. He's not a Robert DeNiro, he actually has a range. He's not a Johnny Depp, he doesn't have a glass ceiling. He's not a Gary Oldman, he hasn't started imitating himself yet.
I think I want to see some genius write a clever, clever SF film - or just a really *strange* and interesting film - and then a good director cast Tom Hardy and Jake Gyllenhaal as leads.
In the meantime, we take what we can. Like 'Legend'.
Oh - if you DO want to see a slow, thoughtful film (which you probably DIDN'T when you sat down to watch 'Legend') with Tom Hardy, that really showcases his brilliance: 'Locke' (2013).
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