The Drop

Synopsis: Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) is bartender at Cousin Marv’s bar in Brooklyn. Despite retaining the name, Marv (James Gandolfini) was forced to sell the bar to the Czechian mafia several years ago, something he’s never gotten over. Now it’s one of several ‘drop bars’ where underworld money is’ banked’ until it can be collected by the enforcers the next day. A couple of nights after Christmas, the bar is robbed by two hoods who seem not to be aware of whose money they are stealing. The Czechians want their money back and it’s up to Bob and Marv to recover it. Then Bob discovers a beaten and abandoned dog in the rubbish bin of a neighbour, Nadia (Noomi Rapace) but when her ex-boyfriend, Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenaerts), claims the dog is his, things become complicated and Bob finds himself at the centre of two intersecting stories that threaten to dredge up unwelcome echoes from the past and reveal that some things aren’t quite what they seemed.

We’ve seen two posthumous performances by James Gandolfini since his untimely death in 2013. The first, Enough Said, showed his warm, vulnerable, sensitive side; a side we didn’t get to see too much in his film career. In this, the second film, we find him back in the familiar territory of the tough guy who constantly exudes an implicit threat coiled behind an almost congenial exterior.  Perhaps it’s fitting that these two roles sum up the breadth and exceptional acting talents of this fine and sadly missed actor. But, despite his solid and malevolent performance here, The Drop really belongs to the ubiquitous Tom Hardy. His lonely, contained and studied performance gives us a compelling character whose internal resources run deeper than the exterior we see. The care he shows for the abandoned dog and the fumbling romance he finds with Nadia belie the singular resolve and forceful determination that exist within him and only rise to the surface when circumstances demand.

First time screenwriter, Dennis Lehane, is better known as the author of a number of bestselling novels from which the screenplays for films such as Mystic River, Shutter Island and Gone Baby Gone have been adapted by other writers. With The Drop he shows that his skill for dense and convoluted storytelling extends beyond the printed page. But his strength, as always, is in the characters he creates to carry these stories. They are complex individuals leading simple lives who invariably succumb to greed or revenge or the darker side of human nature and, often, pay the price for it.  Add to this, Roskam’s tight, darkly lit and muscular direction underscored by Marco Beltrami’s moody soundtrack and you have the makings of a damn good crime movie.

The Drop is a slow burn crime thriller that manages to juggle a number of seemingly separate storylines until the point at which they all converge to reveal an inevitable but unexpected and clever twist that makes for a satisfying if unsettling end.

 

 

Want more about this film?

    

Want something different?