Comments | sibilantly: Sheer Class, Pure Gangster

sibilantly

Sheer Class, Pure Gangster

Oct 28, 2015 21:50

Saw Legend today!

It feels like I've been waiting to see this film forever (my sympathies to my US peeps who will have to wait a while longer), and, for the most part, I was satisfied with what I got. ( Spoilers beyond the cut )

off the cuff review, legend

Comments 7

ey_up October 28 2015, 22:00:04 UTC

YES. I thought the same thing (in fact I wrote it in my test screening evaluation and they STILL didn't change the whole movie for me, lol) - that they glossed over parts that needed more emotional coverage. For example, with Frances' suicide it almost seemed like it went 'Ron and his mum were mean about my dress and tea making skills so I'm going to take these pills...'

I felt the filmmakers needed to choose an element and stick with it. Either the brothers' relationship or the marriage, trying to squeeze it all in left it unfulfilled somehow.

The fight scenes were glorious though. Their high pitched screams were brilliant! :D

sibilantly October 28 2015, 22:48:25 UTC

Right! I understand what the filmmakers were going for - the tragedy of Reggie being unable to leave his brother and the gangster life, and Frances being the one to suffer for it - but the tragedy was undermined by all these side events.

I think they did a good (and by good I mean bleak and harrowing) job of showing why Frances left, but there was a disconnect between her leaving and her eventual suicide. I got the feeling they were going for a 'the only way Frances can escape Reggie is through death, because she'll be constantly drawn to him otherwise' sort of thing, but we didn't see that, we were just told that via Frances' voice over narration. Less tell, more show, film makers, pleassssse. (Also, ngl, Ron and Mama Kray being a pair of mean girls to Frances made me laugh, and then I felt terrible for laughing. Just-- "She looks like a budgie!")

And, oh my God, the shrieking. I thought I was hearing things the first time, but then the audience started laughing and Ron KEPT SHRIEKING AND FLAILING. It was amazing.

ey_up October 29 2015, 08:28:51 UTC

There were some parts that could have been really lovely and emotional, I'm sad that they didn't quite get there with it.
From my understanding of the whole story, one of the things that Frances found hard to deal with was being a type of celebrity as Reggie's wife. That could have been a good way to lead in to her mental health problems

I did like that (in his more lucid moments) Ron was quite caring towards Frances and aware of how ill he was at times.

I think my favourite thing of all was just how much of a dark comedy it was at first, I really didn't expect it!

sibilantly October 29 2015, 11:13:58 UTC

Ooh, yes, that would've been a good lead in! They did have Frank warning Reggie that Frances is fragile/delicate (I can't remember which word/euphemism he used), and Ron being repeatedly nasty about her previous depressive episodes, but, again, there were soooo many side events that the focus kept being pulled away from the core drama(s) playing out between Frances, Reggie, and Ronnie.

Yeah, I also liked those kinder Ron moments - the funny banter with Teddy, and the touches of kindness toward Frances (although the 'we'll only know for sure when we're up in heaven' comment was rather... um, foreboding, I think); it gave his character a bit more nuance.

lauand October 30 2015, 00:30:52 UTC

I've just seen it today. I confess I'm utterly disappointed. There was no story, just a bit of emotional turmoil with no rhyme or reason and characters either being caricatures of themselves or just plain accesories with no charisma at all (pretty interchangables, in my opinion). I could forgive the absolute and total lack of plot and conclusion if at least the emotional situations had been masterfully done, but I honestly think that wasn't the case.

It's very confusing how I didn't expect much of Child 44 or Mad Max and they turned out to be good movies and how I expected Legend to be a good movie and it's like a big WTF.

sibilantly October 31 2015, 00:14:30 UTC

Aw, I'm sorry the film was a disappointing experience for you. I found the first two acts of the film quite enjoyable, if slightly superficial, but the third act couldn't pull all the plot threads together in a satisfying manner, and it really needed to. And there was that depth issue, like I mentioned above.

Now that I've had even more time to reflect on it, it strikes me that Legend seemed to vacillate between being an actual movie and being a documentary. It hammered out the factual side events like a documentary (e.g. Frances narrating how the twins were acquitted, thanks to Boothby's intervention, rather than playing it out like a film would), but then also tried to include a character arc (namely, Reggie's fall from grace).

And, gosh, that's funny (and I guess goes to show how subjective movies are), because I didn't enjoy Child 44 at all. The performances were fantastic, and some of the cinematography was lovely, but I didn't enjoy much else. I actually went off to read the book afterward, because I couldn't believe that was ( ... )

lauand October 31 2015, 00:49:51 UTC

Oh, yes, I think that's actually the problem. It tries to tell a true story, but there's not enough story in it to work as a fiction movie. I think it would actually work as a documentary, and very well, indeed. But I couldn't see a beginning, middle and end to it, it was just random pieces, lots of histrionics and uncharismatic characters. I think my favorite was Frank, honestly, because I really could get him and believe him ( ... )