A grimly effective re telling of the story of the Krays. Hardy is good in playing both parts but I didn't think,as at least one reviewer did, that as Ronnie he so exaggerated his performance that it puts the the whole film out of kilter. Yes it's flamboyant but that was the character and it makes the toxically supportive nature of their relationship much more convincing. He was, twice, diagnosed as mad after all. And talking of toxically enabling relationships, the mother of the twins was probably one of the worst in that respect. This would have been an interesting take on the whole scenario...the way that they were regarded in their community, how they played on that etc etc but then that would be a different film.
The violence was sudden a grimly real, as it should be and there was quite a good sense of London in the 60's as well. I liked the soundtrack too. A selection of appropriate/ironical contemporary hits but mixed with more modern atmospheric music for certain specific scenes in particular. It would have been easy, too easy, to have taken just one of these as the musical concept for the film but combining the was, I thought, original and effective ( hope my point has come across clearly)
I also found myself fascinated by the side characters...really there are so many aspects of this story that would be worth focusing on that I feel there are several films, looking at thee aspects, that are waiting to be made. The politicians, Driberg and Boothby in particular and the role of the political Establishment, the intriguing nature of Inspector Slipper, (really I think worth a film of his own one day)and reference to the micro-celebrities who glommed onto the twins and their lifestyle...'feasting with panthers' again, I suppose!
The film is told through the voice of the saddest person in the film, Reggie's wife although this was not dramatically consistent as there were many scenes where she was not there so logically it did not make sense on looking back,but at the time, to be honest I did not notice this.
Soundly enjoyable though.