Legend Review

Titles can say a lot about films, sometimes a title is the last thing a film receives, Legend tells you everything you need to know about the approach director Brian Helgeland has taken to the story of notorious London gangsters The Kray Twins. The film isn’t the story of the Krays so much as it is the legend of the Krays, as the opening says, “everyone had a story about the Krays” in addition to that those stories also tend to me fabricated. The film is fun and littered with great British character actors such as Thewlis, Eccleston and a small turn from Paul Bettany. But this film has not one but 2 towering performances from Tom Hardy who plays both Krays. His Reggie is cocksure and charming and harks back to the great stars of the 60’s, he’s smart and suave but he maintains the sense of unease about him. Then there is his Ronnie, a big hulking paranoid schizophrenic homosexual who is always seconds away from snapping on someone, what’s most impressive about his Ronnie is his dead stare that Hardy has developed that creates a sense of vacancy in Ron. But the film needs to be more than these performances and through all its fun a panache it feels a bit empty, there a funny moments and shocking moments of violence, but the film doesn’t really have an opinion on any of it, and with a title like Legend it ultimately feels like its glorifying 2 quite horrible people. It also suffers from an irritating narration from Reggie’s wife Frances, which brings literally nothing to the film. It’s glitzy and stylish and features a double towering performance from Hardy, but I just don’t feel it’s going to last very long in the memory. (High 3 Stars)