The focus in Legend, for good or bad, was always going to be on Tom Hardy’s ability to play two separate, distinct characters. In this case, notorious twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray, whose organised, vicious, crime racket dominated the London scene in the 1960’s. Legend looks at the rise and fall of the infamous twin gangsters in the latter half of the decade. One actor playing both title roles is both intriguing and incredibly distracting, especially in a film where the relationship between the two leads is the driving force for most of the action in the movie. The challenge for Hardy is not just to give two sufficiently different performances, but to, in effect, have believable onscreen chemistry with himself. Granted, it’s not at all strange for flesh and blood actors to play opposite CGI co-stars without any fanfare, but in Legend the audience is confronted with the artificial nature of filmmaking in a way that is a lot more blunt. Director and screenwriter Brian Helgeland gives a few self-aware nods to this bold casting choice early on: Ron’s first words to his brother’s love interest, Frances (Emily Browning), “d’you think we look alike?”, feel like a question to the audience. The audience are inclined to agree with Ron when he brushes away his own question with “nah, nah course you don’t”. It is surprisingly easy to forget that both twins are played by one actor.
The most entertaining, comedic and interesting scenes are by far the ones in which Hardy dons the glasses as Ronnie Kray. While Reggie can at times border on cheesy, climbing up a drainpipe Romeo style to deliver a wedding ring to his girlfriend and wooing her with lines like “the centre of the world can be anywhere you want”, Ronnie is pure gold. Our first encounter with Ronnie is a close-up of his face. Bespeckled in hipster glasses, his heavy-looking bottom lip hanging down so only the gums are visible, his vacant eyes staring across at you with intensity and purpose, he talks in a slow, deliberate drawl about trying to use the power of his mind to make someone give him the sausage from his breakfast (it is unclear whether this is a euphemism or a reference to an actual sausage).There is a wonderful mixture of eloquence and the absurd in much of his dialogue. He is a dynamic presence on screen, his very presence creates tension, he is impossible to predict. This is used both for great comedic effect and for shock value in some of the more violent scenes. Reggie, by contrast, acts as a foil to his unpredictable brother. Described as “the gangster prince of the East End” he is suave, charming, always one step ahead of the police. The film begins with Ronnie being released from an insane asylum, despite warnings that he is violent, dangerous and possibly psychopathic. A large part of Legend deals with Reggie’s attempts to make their business legitimate in spite of his brother’s lust for the rush of the visceral, violent side of crime.
Legend, despite scenes of extreme violence, offers an extremely glamorous version of the Kray twins and their lifestyle. Smoky, slick nightclub scenes replete with attractive, impeccably dressed extras really speak to the fact that the Krays were celebrities in their time and it is mentioned several times that the twins socialised with the upper classes and celebrities as well as the criminals of London. Once the twins’ identities are firmly established, however, there isn’t much done to flesh out either of the characters. Ronnie’s mental health issues, for example, are used more to drive the plot forward than to provide insight on his character and Reggie at times feels like a stock “Jack the Lad” gangster. The brains and brawn dichotomy is all too familiar to the gangster genre; Sonny and Michael Corleone, or more recently Thomas and Arthur Shelby in Peaky Blinders, are only two examples of more interesting, nuanced versions of essentially the same relationship. Reggie’s conflicting loyalties; between his brother and his new wife Frances, between his criminal past and the potential for a legitimate future; feel similarly familiar. A lot of screen time is devoted to these problems and as a result, more interesting parts of the Krays’ biography – such as Ronnie’s aforementioned mental illness and a sex scandal connected to the House of Lords – do not get much time to develop.
Legend will be out Wednesday 9th September in Cineworld.
