Film Review: Hardy shines in Gandolfini’s final film
“The Drop,” adapted by Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River,” “Shutter Island”) from his own short story and directed by Michael R. Roskam (“Bullhead), was James Gandolfini’s last role, and his performance — which leans on his long-established “mug” persona — is only one of several reasons to admire the film.
Gandolfini isn’t the lead here. That honor belongs to Tom Hardy, as Bob Saginowski, the bartender at Cousin Marv’s, a working-class Brooklyn bar. Bob, who at moments provides voice-over narration, is taciturn and awkward; he may even qualify as being mentally “slow.” (He’s a bit reminiscent of Billy Bob Thornton’s character in “A Simple Plan.”) Amusingly, Marv (Gandolfini) actually is Bob’s cousin and, along with Marv’s sister, is the only family Bob has.
One night, just at closing time, two masked gunman hold up Cousin Marv’s, making off with five thousand dollars. Marv tries to convince them this is a bad idea, since the bar is now owned by Chechen mobsters, who also use it as a cash drop. The heist is also a big problem for Marv and Bob. The mob won’t be satisfied unless Marv and Bob can get the money back; and, as Marv points out, getting it back will make the mob think they were complicit in the robbery in the first place.
Bob doesn’t seem to have a social life — not surprising, given his communication difficulties — until one night when he hears a dog whimpering in a garbage pail. The dog — a pit-bull puppy subsequently named Rocco — has been beaten, and Bob assumes he belongs to the pail’s owner Nadia (Noomi Rapace). She claims never to have seen Rocco before, but she helps Bob patch him up.
Bob is clearly interested in Nadia, but his hopes for himself and for Rocco are sure to become entangled with the heist, the money, the mob, and a mysterious creep (Matthias Schoenaerts), who seems to be stalking either Bob, Nadia, Rocco or some combination therein.
Belgian director Roskam really delivers in his first English-language film. More than once, he places the camera at a distance to suggest someone is spying on the characters we see; and he likes to have a villain emerge from the out-of-focus background, so we see him materializing in the image before the character in the foreground has a clue. These devices help establish an almost nonstop feeling of anxiety, as though a wolf might suddenly jump into frame and devour the lambs we have come to identify with.
Rapace (the original “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) gives a good performance, though — not for the first time in her Hollywood films — her accent occasionally lapses. Roskam says, “Her character might have come here at 12 or 18 and could still retain a little touch of something else,” but this is never discussed on screen and sounds like an excuse after the fact.
Gandolfini may have always played mugs, as here, but Marv is not Tony Soprano or any other Gandolfini character. His mugs are always distinguishable from each other. (He’s very different here than in “Killing Me Softly,” which had striking plot similarities.) It’s great to see him on screen again and sad to realize it’s the last time.
Mostly, however, this is Hardy’s show. The breadth of his range should come as no surprise now. It’s a shame that his best known work by far was the effectively invisible Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises,” since he has done sterling work in vastly disparate roles in “Locke,” “Lawless,” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”
It’s easy to recommend “The Drop,” but those who are squeamish about blood or violence on screen should beware: The violent moments here are few and brief, but no less effective for that.
--
ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).