Butler's Cinema Scene

Tom Hardy as Reggie and Ronnie Kray

“LEGEND” My rating: B

132 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Brit thesp Tom Hardy was up for an Oscar this year for his supporting work as a  murderous fur trapper in “The Revenant.”  But the Academy folk overlooked his greatest performance(s) of 2015 when they failed to recognize Hardy’s work in “Legend.”

In this crime drama from writer/director Brian Helgeland (“A Knight’s Tale,” “42,” and the screenplays for “L.A. Confidential” and “Mystic River”) Hardy plays two characters drawn from real life.

In the 1960s identical twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray were the kings of crime in London’s East End. But although they shared identical genes, the siblings could hardly have been more different.

Reggie was a spiffy-dressing, silver-tongued charmer and lady’s man. With his breezy glad-handing style he could have been a politician. And if Reggie  couldn’t get what he wanted with charm, there was always the option of a mind-changing beat-down.

(For all the fear they generated, the Krays weren’t terribly bloodthirsty — at least by American gangster standards. Their stock in trade was intimidation…the mere threat of bodily harm usually was sufficient.)

Ronnie, on the other hand, was a hulking, brooding psychopath who radiated brutal potential. Plus he was openly bisexual at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal (not that any sane individual would exhibit even a trace of homophobia in his presence). One shudders at the physical abuse his sexual partners must have undergone.

Helgeland’s screenplay (based on John Pearson’s book) follows the brothers’ rapid rise to power. They operated a series of posh nightclubs that drew the beautiful people and the international jet set. Behind the scenes their criminal minions were involved in extortion, arson, protection rackets and robberies.

Emily Browning

The Krays also got involved fronting for the American mob (in the person of Chazz Palminteri), then looking for a foothold in Europe.

When not running the family business Reggie wooed and won the beautiful Frances Shea (Emily Browning, looking terrific in an array of ’60s Jean Shrimpton fashions and hair styles). Frances’ early infatuation with her gangster beau — and her eventual disillusionment — provides the film’s main dramatic narrative.

Playing the brothers’ nemesis is Christopher Eccleston as Nipper Read, a police detective who made it his life’s work to bring down the Krays.

As a crime drama, “Legend” is just a bit above average.  Making  it compelling watching, though,  are Hardy’s astounding performances (made all the more impressive by sophisticated f/x that allow Ronnie and Reggie to engage in a sibling brawl that must be seen to be believed).

I had issues with Hardy’s mumbling performance in “The Revenant,” but here he won me over and then some.

| Robert W. Butler