My primary complaint about Brian Helgeland‘s Legend, as noted in a 9.12.15 Toronto Film Festival review, was that I could only understand a fraction of it. This was due, I said, to “the Swahili-like working-class London accents, which are always a problem for me in any film, and the bassy-boomy sound system at Toronto’s Princess of Wales theatre.” Well, hold that. I saw Legend again tonight on a DVD screener with subtitles, and reading each and every line and realizing it’s essentially a dry, ultra-violent absurdist comedy made quite a difference. This might be a bit late but while I was dismissive in Toronto, I’m hereby upgrading Legend to a passing grade. But it’s still too long.

Review excerpt: “I understood the basic gist of most scenes, and I definitely heard a complete line or two (‘Those who lives in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’) but not being able to savor the verbal particulars is extremely annoying. ‘Yeahwankerduhluffuckuhlwounday, uhm?’ This has happened with quite a few British-made films about lower-class characters.”