Saw this tonight. It's most definitely Hardy's film. I'd compare it most to Dominic Cooper in The Devils Double an outstanding performance elevating an average movie. The movie has no focus, it didn't really feel like a rise and fall story nor a deep character study of the Kray's, just a general who they and some stuff they went through.
It does start off with a very impressive Goodfellas-esque long take that I swear went on for at least 10 minutes. But as I said the focus is on Hardy and boy he delivers, the accent I can imagine may be a little difficult for US audiences as it strays into high levels of London cockney at times. Both performances are distinctive, it's not Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy with glasses it's Ronnie and Reggie.
When Reggie is on screen you're feel more relaxed due to his charisma and charm (though don't get me wrong he definitely isn't "good" he's just as, if not more, brutal as his brother) but when Ronnie appears you're worried for anyone with the frame.
But his performance is sadly where it stops being great IMO, literally everyone other than a decent Emily Browning is pushed to a very small side role. Paul Bettany is in the film maybe 5 minutes and the Christopher Ecclestone police plot line is poorly plodded in between long intervals. He's in it one 3rd through then maybe isn't really seen again for about 20 minutes.
You seem to simply just get whiffs of everything within the Kray's life, they touch on how politicians in their sleazy clubs or how they have bought some of the police but it never follows up or even does anything with them. There just didn't seem to be any link or plot more like a slice of life but of stuff that if you already know about the Kray's, you've seen before.
But whilst that sounds negative I would still recommend it, Hardy is great and there are definitely some memorable scenes (and one particular VERY brutal and disturbingly real) and some gorgeous cinematography. However, it felt a little uneven at times and completely picked up and dropped plot lines every now and again.
Solid 3/5