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Okay, let’s get this straight. Tom Hardy is a superb actor and never more clearly is this demonstrated than in Brian Helgeland’s Legend, the beautifully shot yet somewhat “sanitised” portrait of the phenomena that are The Kray Twins – Ronnie and Reggie – which is currently showing at Picturehouse@FACT, Liverpool.
Yes, the aura that surrounds the two brothers who simultaneously stirred up and becalmed London’s East End through their reign of terror in the 1950s and 1960s remains undiminished, with as many tales of their exploits being written in True Crime magazines and books than arguably any other pair of gangsters in world history.
They, with their gang “The Firm”, organised and took part in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults and – ultimately – the murders of Jack “The Hat” McVitie for not fulfilling a hit on their bookkeeper, Leslie Payne, and George Cornell the leader of the biggest rival gang – The Richardson’s – to The Kray’s supremacy.
All of this is dealt with, if only to an extent, in Legend but by telling the story through the eyes of Reggie’s first wife, Frances, played here with some quite delightful nuances by Emily Browning and, also, some quite irritating doe-eyed naivety. This isn’t Browning’s fault, however, because so little time is given to Frances’ increasing isolation, dependency on drugs and the final push that eventually drove her to suicide after just two years of marriage it is little wonder she comes across as something of a child.
Reggie refused to spend time with her, but nevertheless delighted in controlling her every moment and forced into her own prison sentence at the end of which her appeals fell on as deaf a set of ears as Reggie’s own would, but more literally, throughout his 40+ years in prison. Only Ronnie, according to Frances’ diaries, seemed to recognise her depression. The problem being that Frances was – understandably – terrified of her brother-in-law and therefore could not confide in him, or anybody, for fear of her husband’s retribution.
As a result, Reggie comes across as something of an indecisive, frustrated man who is constantly at a loss as to what to do with – or about – those with whom he has surrounded himself. This is a shame, because Reggie was every bit as controlling as his brother, the paranoid schizophrenic Ronnie, but more calculating and less impulsive. To portray them as opposing sides of the same coin is just plain mistaken … they were a double-headed coin which when flipped meant those who gambled with them, ultimately lost.
Hardy’s Ronnie Kray is far more accurate. With his mumbling, shuffling portrayal, the actor totally nails the inconsistency of the madman’s behaviour, whilst also revealing that beneath his bluff, cold exterior beat the heart of a truly sadistic maniac. The confrontation in The Astor Club is brilliantly depicted and easily the highlight of the film, but given the wide ranging violence The Krays meted out, there isn’t nearly enough of this side of things as Helgeland prefers to rely on a somewhat whimsical portrayal of Frances’ experiences, rather than spending time exploring the true grit in the oyster of one of the most renowned periods of British criminal history.
Little time is given to much if truth be told, with the result being Legend becoming more of a love story than a warts-and-all telling of a universally understood legend: The Krays were wickedness personified … they killed people because they could, ran the police ragged because they wanted to and dined out with the biggest stars on the planet because they were celebrities who courted celebrity.
Is that not enough material to make a movie out of?
Furthermore, to suggest that The Mafia saw The Krays as nothing more than puppets to their own British criminal empire would be grossly inaccurate. The Family saw The Krays as London based Godfathers and enforcers, thereby giving the twins their due respect and not the reluctant acceptance that is implied here, with the director preferring to cast both the twins and Angelo Bruno as stereotypical bad guy caricatures, rather than fully-fledged, psychotic businessmen.
Indeed, it would not be stretching a point to say that there is far more beautifully enacted truth, disturbing undertones and dry witted humour in one episode of The Sopranos than there is in two hours of Legend and, hopefully one day soon, somebody will have the bottle to actually relate this – though, please God, not Guy Ritchie – and not so much of the “what made them tick” psychobabble that so many film makers seem to want to concentrate on.
Yet with all this said, the ambience of the piece remains dark, the cinematography delightful and Tom Hardy’s performance – particularly when interacting with either alter-ego twin brother – is quite extraordinary.
Legend (18)
Picturhouse@FACT
Director: Brian Helgeland
Cast: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Ecclestone, Chris Mason
Running Time: 130 mins
PR Rating: ***