Tom Hardy Shines In An Otherwise Dull Film

Rating: 6/10 (16 September 2015)

LEGEND tells the true story of identical twin gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, two of the most notorious criminals in British history, as they build their organized crime empire and terrorize London during the 1950s and 60s.
Tom Hardy is the reason you see this movie. His double performance was captivating, and the special effects that made this binary show possible were just as impressive. Within mere minutes of this film you completely forget that one man plays these two characters. Hardy is able to convincingly disappear into each, playing the sane Reggie Kray with charming subtlety and the insane Ronnie with unnerving humor.
And while Hardy is excellent, the rest of the film is sadly not. As an overall film, it's not that compelling to watch. Historically speaking, it's intriguing for sure; it's just not something that'll keep you on the edge of your seat for over 2 hours. This has a lot to do with the tonally incoherent nature of LEGEND; it doesn't know what it wants to be, juggling drama and comedy quite unevenly.
The voice-over narration by Emily Browning, who played Frances, was good and all, but it's implausibility kept taking me out of the movie. What I mean by that is, as a framing device for the story, it was incongruous; more than half the events that she narrated didn't even involve her whatsoever. Also, her character felt more like a means to an end than she did an end in itself, serving the characters around her better than she ultimately served herself.
The best way to describe the kind of vibe that director Brian Helgeland was attempting here is "British Martin Scorsese" film. Not in terms of quality per se, but definitely with regards to feel. The injection of pop music throughout, along with a glossy sheen, gives LEGEND plenty of charismatic, larger-than-life, personality. Unfortunately, the film's messy structure hinders it from ever taking shape. But you know what they say: a messy house is a sign of character, and that may be the highest praise I can give to a movie I desperately wanted to love, but, at the end of the day, have trouble calling good.