Standard Kray Biography - More Heat Than Light

Rating: 2/10 (5 November 2018)

A few years ago a 'vandal' on Wiki suggested that a retired senior detective spent his retirement 'boring the arse off' regulars at his local pub regaling them with stories about his heydey at The Yard. Choice words, given the cottage industry that surrounds the Kray biographies - most of them heavily reliant on the same antedotes - rather ironic as well.
John Pearson's The Profession of Violence is probably the best book on the Krays, albeit a little old by now. When I heard this was to be the source for Legend, I was intrigued - and somewhat hopeful at what it might cover; Reg and Ron's codependency? The feud with the Richardsons? The duel with Nipper Read's taskforce? The trip to Nigeria? The Transatlantic connection? Their ties to Boothby and High Society?
What we got was a series of historical set pieces wrapped around a sluggish love story, interspersed with a few violent scenes, that only achieved an uneven tone and an incoherent storyline. It took about forty five minutes for something to happen once we got past the well staged opening fight. Lots of heavy-handed symbolism, and a largely wasted cast - although fair play to Tom Hardy for a first rate turn as Reg/Ron. David Thewlis impressed at slimy fixer/front man/double agent Dennis Payne (his allegencies deserved their own film) ; Emily Browning's a good actress, but she's a mediocre at best here, seemingly lost without adequate characterization or direction; Christopher Eccleston is wasted (as is most the cast) in a nothing role as Nipper Read.
For all its faults and estorectic nonsense, Peter Mendel's 1990 version capture the drabness and claustrophobia of the era and the environment. Legend is simply a glossy excercise (sometimes well acted) that fails to tells the true story behind the Twins, their psychology or their criminal operations.
Worth it only for Tom Hardy and David Thewlis.