



★ ★ ★ ½ ☆





Tom Hardy commands the screen as twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray in this engrossing crime biopic. Through the eyes of Reggie’s wife Frances, we follow the Kray’s conquest of London through the 1960’s and the scuffles between the two brothers as their empire expands.





can be a serious actor outside of adaptations and franchise films. Prove himself he does, in a dual-performance bursting with enough ferocity to fuel the entire cast of any other film. As Reggie he is an almost James Dean-like presence, a cigarette hanging in a picturesque manner from his lower lip with a leaning swagger to match. Ronnie is the polar opposite; a straight-backed, loud-mouthed brute with ever-puckered lips and bulbous eyes played somewhere between hilarious and terrifying. In essence, Hardy displays Ronnie as the show and Reggie as the tell. It’s almost as if Hardy didn’t quite believe the praise laid upon him for a plethora of recent roles and felt a burning desire to prove to everybody that he absolutely positivelybe a serious actor outside of adaptations and franchise films. Prove himself he does, in a dual-performance bursting with enough ferocity to fuel the entire cast of any other film. As Reggie he is an almost James Dean-like presence, a cigarette hanging in a picturesque manner from his lower lip with a leaning swagger to match. Ronnie is the polar opposite; a straight-backed, loud-mouthed brute with ever-puckered lips and bulbous eyes played somewhere between hilarious and terrifying. In essence, Hardy displays Ronnie as theand Reggie as the





Merging two roles by the same actor is now commonplace in mainstream film, but the effects and logistics are so seamless here that a slight percentage of the wow-factor is lost because the audience is constantly wondering how the Donald Duck they did it! Hardy’s total control of the viewer’s attention also reduces the screen time dedicated to learned British talent such as Christopher Ecclestone as stone-faced Superintendent Read and David Thewlis as ill-tempered Kray subordinate Leslie Payne; more’s the pity.





There is, however, one performance that stands apart, to give us a way into the story through fresh eyes: Emily Browning as Frances is the secret weapon, a guide for the innocent and uneducated audience through the story as her rose-tinted lenses of love and respect for the Krays are slowly but surely worn away by unfolding tragedy. I very much appreciated that Browning’s occasional narration doesn’t chime in every few minutes to remind us of the date or throw important news stories of the day into the mix as many others would. London’s East End is brought to life via the lavish opulence and cold smoky streets of the interior and exterior world respectively.





Legend takes a far more simplistic and stylish approach: the first half of the film sees Frances fall in love with Reggie as the twins move on up into the echelons of high society amidst a wave of ‘swinging sixties’ pop tunes, before the second half sees their world begin to unravel as their contrasting natures deal deadly damage. Frances’ developing relationship with the twins could easily feed a problem that director Brian Helgeland would always have to conquer (and has indeed acknowledged consistently in the press): treading the thin line between portrait and worship, study and shrine. While most biopics would allow the best and the worst of their subjects to intertwine,takes a far more simplistic and stylish approach: the first half of the film sees Frances fall in love with Reggie as the twins move on up into the echelons of high society amidst a wave of ‘swinging sixties’ pop tunes, before the second half sees their world begin to unravel as their contrasting natures deal deadly damage.



