Legend (18.)
Directed by Brian Helgeland.
Starring Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Paul Anderson, Taron Egerton and Christopher Ecclestone. 131 mins
All gangster films glorify gangsters, even the ones that don't – they do, because they are films about gangsters. So, yes, I instinctively object to a film about the Kray twins being called Legend. Once you start watching it though it quickly becomes clear that Legend is a wholly appropriate title because their legend is the major thing Brian (LA Confidential) Helgeland’s script is interested in. Even if your Kray knowledge doesn't extend much beyond the Blind Beggar, Jack the Hat and the photo by David Bailey, you can sense the liberties being taken. In this context, the gimmicky casting of Tom Hardy as both twins can be seen as the necessary pinch of salt with which the film should be taken.
Legend casts the story as a tug of war for the soul of the nice Kray, Reggie. His wife Francis (Browning) wants him to go legit; brother Ronnie, the nasty psychopathic gay Kray, wants them to be wilder. The story is played out as a brisk black comedy romp, with Reggie running rings round his pursuant plod Nipper (Ecclestone) but always wondering what his crazy brother and has gone and done this time.
Hardy’s split egg portrayal presents them as the two sides of the British film acting tradition. His Reggie is the traditional working class lad who got into movies in the hope his unruly charisma would offer a way out of the humdrum. He speaks in a thin little David Beckham voice and is every Eastenders cast member who quit in the hope of finding something bigger and better. Ronnie though, a malevolent bespectacled womble with Patrick Marber's face, is the theatrical knight forced to play the villain for Hollywood. He speaks softly but in a rich, full voice that has been trained to carry to the cheap seats; he's Bane without the inhaler.
Does Hardy vs Hardy better Kemp vs Kemp in the 1990 film? I'm not sure, they are very different films. That was centred on Billie Whitelaw as their forceful, dominating mother, but the mother's a peripheral figure here. Helgeland's female centre is the fragile Frances, who he has act as the narrator. She is kept busy as almost all of the story is told rather than shown. The film starts with the Krays already on top and the rival Richardson gang, a bunch of demented South London hillbillies headed by Paul Bettany, are soon carted off to prison. Good for London, but a shame for the film because they seem to have been a lot more flamboyantly sociopathic than the two Rs. The story of the Kray's reign is one of social and political corruption, not outrageous shoot outs and spectacular set pieces. When this opens in America you wonder what the yanks will make of our most notorious gangsters, who drink tea and generally don't kill anyone.
Legend (18.)
Directed by Brian Helgeland.
Starring Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Paul Anderson, Taron Egerton and Christopher Ecclestone. 131 mins
All gangster films glorify gangsters, even the ones that don't – they do, because they are films about gangsters. So, yes, I instinctively object to a film about the Kray twins being called Legend. Once you start watching it though it quickly becomes clear that Legend is a wholly appropriate title because their legend is the major thing Brian (LA Confidential) Helgeland’s script is interested in. Even if your Kray knowledge doesn't extend much beyond the Blind Beggar, Jack the Hat and the photo by David Bailey, you can sense the liberties being taken. In this context, the gimmicky casting of Tom Hardy as both twins can be seen as the necessary pinch of salt with which the film should be taken.
Legend casts the story as a tug of war for the soul of the nice Kray, Reggie. His wife Francis (Browning) wants him to go legit; brother Ronnie, the nasty psychopathic gay Kray, wants them to be wilder. The story is played out as a brisk black comedy romp, with Reggie running rings round his pursuant plod Nipper (Ecclestone) but always wondering what his crazy brother and has gone and done this time.
Hardy’s split egg portrayal presents them as the two sides of the British film acting tradition. His Reggie is the traditional working class lad who got into movies in the hope his unruly charisma would offer a way out of the humdrum. He speaks in a thin little David Beckham voice and is every Eastenders cast member who quit in the hope of finding something bigger and better. Ronnie though, a malevolent bespectacled womble with Patrick Marber's face, is the theatrical knight forced to play the villain for Hollywood. He speaks softly but in a rich, full voice that has been trained to carry to the cheap seats; he's Bane without the inhaler.
Does Hardy vs Hardy better Kemp vs Kemp in the 1990 film? I'm not sure, they are very different films. That was centred on Billie Whitelaw as their forceful, dominating mother, but the mother's a peripheral figure here. Helgeland's female centre is the fragile Frances, who he has act as the narrator. She is kept busy as almost all of the story is told rather than shown. The film starts with the Krays already on top and the rival Richardson gang, a bunch of demented South London hillbillies headed by Paul Bettany, are soon carted off to prison. Good for London, but a shame for the film because they seem to have been a lot more flamboyantly sociopathic than the two Rs. The story of the Kray's reign is one of social and political corruption, not outrageous shoot outs and spectacular set pieces. When this opens in America you wonder what the yanks will make of our most notorious gangsters, who drink tea and generally don't kill anyone.
