At one point, Ronnie manages to embroil members of both sides of the House of Lords in an epic scandal. It’s a shame, because some of the factual details we get in glancing fashion have enormous potential.
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LEGEND isn’t intended as a documentary, but it doesn’t use its dramatic license to provide either resonant insights or a plotline that generates suspense. He’s also ferociously paranoid, sensible in the gangster world to an extent, but dangerous when taken to extremes. Where Reggie can pass as an up-and-coming businessman, Ronnie is a unique character, given to fits of sibling possessiveness, violent rage and strange philosophical observations. Ronnie Kray by most accounts was the more volatile of the brothers (to put it mildly). This wouldn’t be an issue (or at least, it would be another kind of issue) if Frances were more perceptive, but because she’s so eager to believe the best of Reggie for so long, we start wondering if a) she’s very dense, b) Reggie really managed to keep her away from most of his business so much of the time, or c) he stayed away from the bulk of the insanity. However, filmmaker Helgeland has opted to the story from the point of view of Reggie’s eventual wife Frances Shea (Emily Browning), who narrates both things she witnessed and things she couldn’t possibly know about. It’s easy to forget that it’s the same person inhabiting the two separate personas, which is very much the intention. It’s a fairly remarkable piece of work in terms of the actor’s performances and the seamless digital work enabling him to do the many scenes where the brothers are on screen together. LEGEND, adapted by writer/director Brian Helgeland from John Pearson’s nonfiction book THE PROFESSION OF VIOLENCE, stars Tom Hardy as both Reggie and Ronnie. This isn’t the first feature to tackle London’s notorious Kray brothers – actual brothers Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp starred in 1990’s THE KRAYS, which had a fairly different take on Ronnie and Reggie, twins from London’s East End who ruled the crime scene there in the 1960s. Release Date (theatrical): November 20, 2015Īs biographical gangster films go, LEGEND is good enough. Writer: Brian Helgeland, based on the book THE PROFESSION OF VIOLENCE by John Pearson Stars: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Chazz Palmintieri
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You will too.LEGEND movie poster | ©2015 Universal Pictures Still, Hardy is a show all by himself, an actor flying without a net and having a ball. Helgeland’s script is hit-and-miss, not on the Oscar-winning level of his L.A. Peter Medak’s 1990 film The Krays, starring Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet, had more narrative force. At one point, the brothers punch each other out. But his outbursts with an American Mafioso (Chazz Palminteri) drive Reggie bonkers. Of course, Ronnie loves his mum (Jane Wood). The gay Kray is indisputably cray-cray, a monster given to sadistic violence and orgies involving Lord Boothby (John Sessions) and Teddy Smith (a terrific Taron Egerton).
Writer-director Brian Helgeland uses Frances to narrate the film, a device that fails to pay off, since even a voice-over can’t make sense of Ronnie. Reggie, ever the smooth operator, was cool enough to temporarily hide his cruel streak from Frances (Emily Browning), the girl he woos like Romeo courting his Juliet on her balcony. Ronald and Reginald Kray were the gangster lords of London during the 1960s. It helps that he’s playing identical twins. In Legend, Hardy gets to do both, and all stops in between. Tom Hardy can act the hell out of any role, from subtle to blow-the-roof-off.