The Drop (2014) Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz Movie Review

The Drop (2014)   4/54/54/54/54/5


Tom Hardy in The Drop (2014)

All About Bob

These days Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) is a bar tender working alongside his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini) who once owned the bar, that is before Chechen gangsters took over the area and now use the bar as one of their drop sites. Things start to get complicated when two punks rob the bar with Detective Torres (John Ortiz) who Bob has seen at church investigating the case and being highly suspicious of what goes on at the bar. And things get even more complicated when Bob meets Nadia (Noomi Rapace) who become close when Bob finds a young dog dumped in a trash can by her house. All of which leads to Bob having to deal with the appearance of Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenaerts) who not only says the dog is his but also says Nadia is his as well. With the Chechen gangsters pressuring them for their money, Torres trying to get to the bottom of things, including an old murder case, as well as Eric things end up coming to a head.

There is a line in "The Drop" which sees Detective Torres say to Bob; "No one ever sees you coming" and that line sums up this movie perfectly. The movie starts quite quietly with Bob working for Marv in a bar where you imagine the same guys from the neighbourhood show up every night after work and drink the same drinks. But slowly the story begins to grow, we learn that Marv no longer owns the bar and still misses the day when he was a guy who commanded respect in the neighbourhood. We see that Bob whilst appearing to be a very average guy has done some dark deeds as in a scene where he deals with a chopped off body part as if he was just wrapping up a lump of meat. And by the time "The Drop" ends we have a picture of the neighbourhood vastly different to the one we started with as we have learned secrets and discovered what was going on with the robbery. It is so good that to be honest I re-watched "The Drop" immediately after it had finished and it still impressed the second time around.

Noomi Rapace in The Drop (2014)

Whilst we have this evolving storyline going on "The Drop" we also have Bob and as I said at the start he seems just this average sort of guy who works in a bar, knows and looks out for those who come in whilst attending church every morning. But as we get to know him we discover here is a guy who lives a lonely life which he has accepted because of things he did in his past. We also see he is a dog lover as dogs are innocent and through this we have this friendship form with Nadia who equally has history which we slowly get to know about. These two damaged individuals and the troubles which won't let them escape end up strangely warming your hearts, not in a slushy romantic sort of way but more in a they strangely need each other but don't complete each other. And what is nice, although I imagine some would disagree, there is a wonderful ambiguity to the way the movie ends which makes you suspect some thing happens but you don't know for sure.

Of course it is worth mention that "The Drop" also features James Gandolfini who died just a month after shooting had wrapped on this production. Now I am not going to say this was Gandolfini at his best but he plays Marv brilliantly to bring out the tiredness of the character who is gripping on to what he once had whilst letting what he lost eat away at him. As such he seems a nice guy but as the story evolves you get to see another side which makes him surprisingly dangerous.

What this all boils down to is that "The Drop" is one of those beautiful movies where things start off quite simply and as the movie progresses the story evolves, secrets are revealed, character histories are fleshed out whilst characters also grow slightly. It is one of those rare movies which when it is finished you know that you will be watching it again.


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