Legend (2015) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Crime | Drama | History | Thriller

From Academy Award winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) comes the true story of London's most notorious gangsters, twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray (Tom Hardy, Mad Max: Fury Road). As the brothers rise through the criminal underworld, Ronnie advances the family business with violence and intimidation while Reggie struggles to go legitimate for local girl Frances Shea (Emily Browning, Sucker Punch). In and out of prison, Ronnie's unpredictable tendencies and the slow disintegration of Reggie's marriage threaten to bring the brothers' empire tumbling to the ground.

Storyline: Focusing on the relationship between Reggie Kray and Frances Shea, told from France's' point of view as someone who knew him best, as well as the mental health issues Ronnie Kray faced and their rise to power as the notorious gangsters of London.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 17, 2016 Legend's main draw is the opportunity to bask in the glory that is Tom Hardy's dual performance as twin, yet otherwise disparate, 1960s London gangsters, the infamous Kray Brothers. There's certainly not a plethora of other reasons to watch. Director Brian Helgeland (42), who also wrote the movie's screenplay based on John Pearson's novel The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, has crafted a disappointingly vacuous picture, a cliché riddled period Mob film that struggles to find an identity beyond its leading man and the men he plays. Packed with unimaginative narrative arcs, shallow character depth outside the leads, and even a soundtrack that only recycles all the songs that play over every other 60s-retro movie, Legend ambles on through the narrative and only rises above the all-style, no-substance death knell thanks to that wonderful performance from Tom Hardy. He brings enough interesting character clout to keep him, and the audience, absorbed in every last little morsel of juxtaposing kindred goodness, but even his doubly impressive screen presence can't make Legend more than a mediocre movie at its core.

Reggie Kray (Tom Hardy) is a hard-edge London gangster with a nose for the deal and a willingness to get tangled up in trouble. His twin brother Ronnie (also Tom Hardy) is locked away at a mental institution and has been diagnosed a "paranoid schizophrenic." Reggie underhandedly secures his brother's early release and, together, the two dominate London's underground criminal scene, even considering Ronnie's mental shortcomings. With business booming, Reggie enters into a relationship with Frances (Emily Browning), whom he knows by way of his driver. The film follows that romance and the brothers' criminal exploits, together and individually when Reggie is imprisoned and Ronnie is left to his own uneven and unstable devices.

It's hard to thoroughly, or too harshly, criticize Legend because Tom Hardy is so great in it, even as all of the movie's good and bad points -- all the richness he brings to his parts and all of the generic contrivances the story throws at him -- flow directly through him. He certainly elevates the material into something that is, if nothing else, a fair watch thanks to his ability to sort out two very different characters and hold it all together under the pressures of double duty. He's able to starkly differentiate, but at the same time explore the similarities that drive, both of his characters. It's nothing short of a revelation, particularly considering how disparate those characters are. Reggie is the more grounded of the two, capable of violent acts to be sure but more willing, and able, to tread that line between good and evil. Reggie is the homosexual paranoid schizophrenic who lacks the mental acumen and sharpness his brother demonstrates, and he's much more volatile and incapable of working the nuance of the negotiation or the business. He also disapproves of his brother's romantic relationship with Frances. In crafting both parts, Hardy does more than take on a slightly different physical appearance and change his speech. He finds the deepest, most telling character depth available to him, managing the blend of overarching physical, mental, and emotional qualities with a nuanced finesse and command of the characters' very souls, elevating the material from forgettably uncreative to, at least where his parts are concerned, classic example of how command of character, or in this case, two characters, can see a movie rise from forgettable obscurity.

Both Hardy and history make the Kray brothers complex and interesting characters, but the world in which they live is not. Legend is never able to support Hardy with a more dense, or in any way creatively alive, world. The movie works through generic machinations that may reflect a core legacy, but the film itself cannot adequately differentiate itself from most others of its kind. It's rather remarkable in its conformity to basic genre standards, resulting in a movie that, beyond Hardy's work, is one of the more forgettable of its kind. Whether the Reggie-Frances love story and all of its permutations, the core of the sibling rivalry motif, the business side of the ledger, the violence, or all of the other, broader, story drivers, the movie continuously fails to generate any kind of dramatic excitement. On the plus side, Helgeland and team have created a richly detailed and aesthetically pleasing backdrop for the movie. Its period attire, locations, set pieces, and support infrastructure look terrific, and Dick Pope, who shot the masterful Mr. Turner (for which he earned an Oscar nomination), soaks up the environment with not only a pleasing aesthetic but a sense of intimacy and audience envelopment that does all it can to blend the movie's shortcomings into its terrific visual atmosphere.

Legend may describe the story of Reggie and Ronnie Kray and Tom Hardy's embodiment of them, but the rest of the film hardly lives up to its title. The movie offers otherwise passable entertainment value but cannot escape its total inability to work even a hint of creativity into its reproduction of a long-established genre. The movie does look good, but its best qualities are superficial; there's nothing complimentary underneath. Universal's Blu-ray does offer standout video and audio. Supplements are limited to a featurette and a commentary track. Rent it.

[CSW] -2.4- Good, but not great. Doesn't have the impact or the importance of a Godfather/Goodfellas/Untouchables/The Departed/Bonnie and Clyde. Nor does it go the more sensationalist route of Gangsterland. Which leaves it a very middle of the road picture which is disappointing as I really wanted this to be great. In the end, you're left with two great performances from Tom Hardy, a narrator gimmick that doesn't really help the story, and unintelligible dialogue because the audio mix is too low. No, the problem is not your ears. It's that this film, like most other British fare (new Doctor Who, Sherlock, MI6, etc) mixes the dialogue track at the same levels (volume) as the score (music) as well as the ambient tracks (background noise ala the ocean, city streets, or a playground). This means these secondary elements drown out the words you're trying to hear. The Brit industry does this compared to the Hollywood Mixers who highlight dialogue tracks above the others. This is why you typically have to watch British content louder than other shows in order to even have a hope of 'hearing' the words that are being said, let alone deciphering the accents which become exacerbated when an actor (Tom Hardy as one of the brothers) mumbles; all of which means that you must watch this with English subtitles. Tom Hardy did a great job playing both parts but be aware that you can hardly understand the dialogue, especially when he was playing Ronald, hence the subtitles. As usual any storyline based on a true story usually isn't very compelling; it may be entertaining but not very memorable.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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