YMMV / Legend (2015)

• Adorkable: This movie somehow managed to make Ronnie Kray into this! In between his awkward dance moves, his bumbling attempts at casual conversation, his first meeting with Frances where he shyly admits his sexuality and his Brutal Honesty he can come across as a bit goofy at times. Not helping at all is Tom Hardy giving his best Puppy Eyes in his performance. True he is as his sister in law says "a one man killing machine", he does have some Pet the Dog moments and even Frances admits in the same sentence that he’s funny. She’s not wrong!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The scene of Ronnie dancing while Reggie glares at him has become a popular meme template.
  • A GIF of Ronnie setting a gun on the table while glaring menacingly◊ is also especially popular.
• Moral Event Horizon: For the first three quarters of the film, Reggie looks like he's trying to go straight or at least keep violence to a focused minimum and run legitimate businesses like his nightclub. He is adamantly opposed to his brother's chaotic and loose cannon use of violence and is horrified when Ron resorts to murder because it could bring them both down. Then soon after his wedding to Frances, he gets increasingly irritated by her pleas to go straight and to stop protecting Ronnie plus her pill popping until he savagely beats and rapes her. This pivotal event leads to Frances committing suicide and Reggie's complete self-destruction via his murder of Jack the Hat.
• One-Scene Wonder: More like three, but Paul Bettany has a grand total of about three minutes of screen time, and doesn't waste a second. Whether it's menacing a Kray underling while he's being tortured, educating his little brother on Alexander the Great, or refusing to be arrested until he's heard the decision on the winning goal of the 1966 World Cup Final, he's clearly having a bloody ball.
• One True Threesome: Implied with Ron and his lackeys. Although they do clearly screw other guys, in various ways.
• Signature Scene: The bar fight, and Ron dancing.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Mrs Shea is treated as little more than a wet blanket who’s only role is to interfere with Frances and Reggie's relationship. The thing is though is that she’s completely right in not wanting her daughter to marry a gangster!! It’s been said that Frances is "delicate" so what were the odds that a relationship between her and Reggie was going to end well!? Ultimately Mrs Shea comes across as a Mama Bear who’s raised two children by herself in a harsh environment only to lose her only daughter to suicide after trying in vain to stop her from entering into a toxic marriage!

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