Double Trouble

Legend

I am beginning to think that our fascination with the criminal underground is a bit disturbing. I am just starting to see the amount of films about criminal, real and fake, that are making their way to the big screen. We glorify gangsters and bank robbers to a shocking degree and I wonder what psychological reason for all of this. So when I read that another gangster film was being released in 2015, I chalked it up to normal. Add the recent British import, distributed in the United States by Universal Pictures, crime thriller Legend.

During the 1960’s the London organized criminal element was ruled by Reggie and Ronnie Kray (both played by Tom Hardy Mad Max: Fury Road). Legend  follows the twins during their ‘prime’ and their eventual fall. The film sheds light on the twins’ personal lives, mental health, and the pure love they have for being gangsters.

I know that I have probably said this before, but biography films are so hard to summarize. These films are about the lives of certain individuals and what made them intriguing for popular culture. How much more summary do you need than that, right? I will admit that I am always interested in learning about new people, if it be from reading or film. The only problem that I have with this bio pic is that I really didn’t learn anything about these two gangsters. I’m not sure if the film was aim strictly to an English audience that may know the stories or if there was just too much to tell. The film seemed to glaze over a lot of information and never really stuck to one aspect of their lives very well.

The film’s performance  of the lead actor wasn’t a complete waste however. Hardy is racking up quite the stellar gigs. Showcasing his range in this film was remarkable due to the fact that even though he is playing twins, the Krays had such different personalities. Hardy’s acting in this movie is that only thing that kept this film afloat for 2 ½ hours.  The rest of the cast was just not strong enough to push this film from mediocre to at least good.

Of course some of that responsibility lay with the film’s director, Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential), who has a knack for writing crime thrillers but hasn’t been able to actually direct one very well. His work here just seems so rushed, even for the running time of this movie. We never really get to see why these two were so feared during this time in London and the way Helgeland writes this out makes them seem quite tame compared to the gangsters in America or Italy. No mean is this offense to my friends across the Pond, but that is how the director depicted them.

For a bio pic, Legend seems to fall extremely short of its title. For Tom Hardy fans, this is one film that should be taken with a grain of salt. On one hand you get to see Hardy crank out two outstanding performances, but on the other the film lacks so much more punch that it could have had. I learned more about the Krays from Wikipedia than I did from this film.

The Verdict: Wait for Cable.