Review: Brian Helgeland's Twin Gangster Tale 'Legend' Starring Tom Hardy & Emily Browning

Since he went supernova with his acclaimed role in “Bronson” in 2008, Tom Hardy has had about as varied a career as an actor could ask for. He’s been a suave shape-shifting mind thief; a used-up 70s spy; a taciturn, war-scarred MMA fighter; a hulking, masked supervillain; a cardigan-wearing Prohibition bootlegger; a Welsh concrete expert on the longest drive of his life; a softly-spoken Brooklyn bartender; a hipster-bearded Jewish crime boss; a Russian cop; and the maddest Max around. But his greatest challenge might have just arrived, as he has to pull off not just one great performance, but two.

Hardy stars, twice, in “Legend,” a biopic of famous London gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, previously seen on screen in Peter Medak’s 1990 film “The Krays,” starring the twins from Spandau Ballet. Unlike the previous version, the new film, from writer/director Brian Helgeland (an Oscar winner for co-penning “L.A. Confidential,” and director of “Payback,” “A Knight’s Tale” and...