Routine Biopic Notable Mostly for Hardy's Performance

Rating: 6/10 (6 February 2016)

The notorious gangsters of Sixties London, Ronnie and Reggie Kray, have proved a popular subject in the movies, most notably in Peter Medak's film of 1990 when the parts were played by the Kemp twins.
This updated version contains a remarkable tour de force by Tom Hardy who plays both twins and manages to establish a clear personality difference between the two. Ronnie Kray is a homosexual with clear personality disorders; always overshadowed by his brother, he becomes pathological when Reggie is put away in prison. He is also the more vulnerable of the two, with a close attachment to his mother (Jane Wood). Reggie is a smooth operator with a violent streak, which he tries to cover up. Falling in love with Frances Shea (Emily Browning), he vows to give up the criminal existence for good, but we know that will never happen.
Told from Frances's perspective, Brian Helgeland's film portrays the evil attractiveness of the gangster's life; the ability to exercise power and dominate others through intimidation. We understand why the Krays were so mythologized in the Sixties, as they hob-nobbed with the great and the good while keeping tight control of their 'manor' in London's East End.
Yet whether the film has more to say about the twins than we already know is debatable. The Sixties atmosphere has been competently re- created, even though Soho tends to look like a reject from Julien Temple's ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS (1986). The script has more than its share of plot-clichés, especially the twins' love of their mother, and the dogged cop Nipper Read (Christopher Eccleston) who pursues the Krays in a far too shiny-looking Ford Prefect without actually getting anywhere near them.
Some of the supporting performances are overtly camp, to say the least. John Sessions's Lord Boothby has distinct echoes of an aging Quentin Crisp, while Kevin McNally's Harold Wilson has little of the down-to-earth pragmatism of the former Prime Minister.
The film has a certain macabre attraction, but not much else.