Legend

Brian Helgeland – 2015 – England

It takes a certain degree of arrogance for an actor to take on the roles of identical twins in a non-comedic film.  So much can go wrong, and it's the kind of thing that often leads to unintentional camp humor in old movies and TV soap operas.  Jeremy Irons' work in Cronenberg's Dead Ringers has always been a notable exception.  There are very few actors I wouldn't scoff at for doing such a thing, and Tom Hardy is one of them.  As the notorious Kray brothers – Reginald and Ronald – of 1960s London, Hardy continues his remarkable career path characterized by an ability to choose the best possible projects in which to showcase his chameleonic range.  Peter Medak's excellent 1990 film The Krays used real brothers Gary and Martin Kemp as the British underworld gangsters with a fondness for media attention.  Though Legend is based on the same book as The Krays, perhaps wisely the filmmakers opted against a scene-for-scene remake.  One of the best things in Medak's film was the heavy focus on the twin's mother, played by the great Billie Whitelaw in a memorably vitriolic performance; here the character is barely seen.  On the other hand, there is now room for issues like Ronnie Kray's homosexuality and mental illness to be dealt with more substantially.  The twinning special effects in the film are seamless; in scenes where they are together, you can easily forget that one actor is doing both parts.  The period rendering of London 50 years ago seems virtually flawless too.  Only Chazz Palminteri, as an emissary of Meyer Lansky, feels a little out of place; not just because he's the only American, but his style is too modern; (the poor guy; like Joe Pesci, no one is interested in using him in anything but mob boss roles).