Timing is Everything

Rating: 7/10 (19 April 2020)

Like JFK and Malcolm X, the Kray twins benefit from the veneer of cool bestowed from being in their heyday during the early sixties; an era so cool it hurts... as this film never tires of reminding us.
Thanks to Tom Hardy's terrific performance(s) and adroit editing and special effects, the illusion of two different brothers interacting is well maintained. But why did all involved insist on putting Ronnie throughout in glasses when (as anyone familiar with contemporary photographs will know) he was presumably too vain to actually wear them most of the time? Maybe it's to differentiate them. But in that case why, after all that money spent on recreating the period - not to mention the special effects - even more egregiously do both brothers sport identical anachronistic sets of sideburns they never wore in reality? (Along with many of the rest of the cast, like Christopher Eccleston as 'Nipper' Read). Just look at any picture of the pair.