Movie Review: Criminally good double act

30 October 2015 - 02:06 By Tymon Smith

Fifteen years after the death of Reggie Kray, the notorious exploits of him and his twin brother Ronnie continue to ignite the public imagination. Their reign of terror as the most visible, violent and ruthless of London's gangsters from the 1950s to the end of the 1960s has become the stuff of legend.In 1990, director Peter Medak took a stab at the brothers' story in the eerie, violent-for-its-time The Krays, starring Spandau Ballet pop star brothers Gary and Martin Kemp. That film focused its attention on matriarch and doting East End mum Violet Kray. Brian Helgeland's film, Legend, also chooses to focus on the twins through the eyes of one of the unfortunate women in their story, Frances Shea, wife of Reggie, played by Emily Browning.While Medak's film followed the story from the birth of the twins to their arrest in 1969, Helgeland dives into the story in the 1950s, when they began to establish their fearsome reputations. They stroll the streets of Bethnal Green, beloved, known and feared by everyone but thought of as charming, dapper, neighbourhood Robin Hood types.Reggie is the good-looking sweet talker; Ronnie, the unhinged, homosexual, socially awkward, paranoid schizophrenic with a fuse shorter than a lighter flint.Helgeland is good at conveying the glamorous world of 1960s London and the Krays' sentimental love of all things glitzy and gold, not so good at conveying the real danger that lurked behind their presence. What Legend really serves as is not a successful reinterpretation or investigation of the myth of the Krays, but a stellar vehicle for the talents of Tom Hardy, who plays both twins. As Reggie, Hardy is all boyish charm, handsome cheek and sharp dresser. As Ronnie he's chubby, edgy and uses his considerable bulk to convey a sense of a total psychopath ready to unleash violence at any time.Clever technical tricks make it possible for Hardy to have a fight with himself as the two brothers engage in an almighty scrap in one scene. These can't cover up Helgeland's lack of focus on saying something new about the brothers and their pathological love of the limelight, which was far greater than their criminal abilities.Legend touches on aspects of the story left out by The Krays, such as the Portillo scandal involving Ronnie, a Tory MP, a harem of rent boys and the brothers' investment in the building of a city in Nigeria. It sometimes threatens to veer into the territory of Monty Python's brilliant Kray-inspired sketch The Piranha Brothers but it's saved by the magnetism of Hardy's performance.In the two halves of the Kray persona Hardy has found a role that allows him in one film to show off both his dapper movie-star side and his burly London tough guy, and for that the film earns its ticket price.Legend opens in cinemas todayWhat others sayA brash, cartoonish affair, happy to bask in the reflected glory of its subjects' bizarre cultural icon status. Mark Kermode, theguardian.comTonally incoherent, vacuous and structurally a bleedin' mess.Leslie Felprin, Hollywood ReporterHardy's astonishing, award-calibre twin turn as the notorious Kray brothers deepens and darkens Brian Helgeland's biopic. Guy Lodge, VarietyAlso openingGOOSEBUMPSDoesn't boast fine craftsmanship or provide a subversive take on supernatural horror tropes; rather, it has a kid-friendly spin that illustrates the fun of scary storytelling. Sandy Schaefer, screenrant.comCRIMSON PEAKDirector Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil' s Backbone) does Gothic romance, and it's as emotionally charged, visually luscious, and batshit insane as you'd expect. Dawn Smith,letterboxd.comKNOCK KNOCKKeanu Reeves' whiny monologue comparing an act of infidelity to "free pizza" is a moment that seems destined for cult canonisation in this update of Peter Traynor's 1977 exploitation movie Death Game.Ben Kenigsberg, variety.com..

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