In this “notorious true story of the Kray twins” — the gangster brothers who briefly fancied themselves as kings of London in the ’60s — the knockout punch isn’t dealt by Tom Hardy raised to the power 2. It is the Kray mother (Jane Wood) in her bedraggled nightgown, mousey hair, wrinkled cleavage, and a firm grip passing along cups of tea.

Sure, the Krays are dynamic in and of themselves, but a lack of a narrative drive as well as dangling subplots that never really take off, all amount to a much longer affair than you’d expect.

And with fewer punches than you’d expect.

Ultimately, it all comes back to Hardy’s performance.