I enjoyed seeing The Drop, a crime drama starring James Gandolfini, Tom Hardy, and Noomi Rapace. The basic plot of the movie centers on Brooklyn bars that act as an underground "drop" for laundered money in organized crime.The "drop" bar changes frequently, and is known by word of mouth. Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini play cousins Bob and Marv who work at a bar (Bob is a bartender, Marv is the owner) that gets robbed, and the Chechen mob, whose money got stolen, wants their money back. In the meantime, Bob finds an abused pit bull puppy in garbage bin and takes care of it, with the help of his neighbor Nadia (Rapace). The story gets more involved as more details about the robbery come to light,as well as the puppy being an object amongst criminal thugs.
The story was paced well, even if it followed some cliches of the genre ("get me 5K in two days or you're dead"), but I enjoyed it for the solid acting and gritty working-class neighborhood. The movie was adapted from a short story by Dennis Lehane, and I thought Gone, Baby, Gone was a great adaptation of his book, so I was in. I do like these kind of movies, usually about a bunch of old-school Irish or Italian guys who grew up in a working-class part of a city, often New York, Boston, Chicago, apart of New Jersey, or Philadelphia, who talk about knowing their streets and being close with the local mob and avoiding snitching. I find comfort in these movies,I just like the accents and setting. The Drop is good to see for the actors and genre. It is a small movie, not an epic tale, just a story out of the streets amongst old-school folks and the mob. Plus, there is an adorable pit bull puppy in the movie who is a plot device, but is still cute to watch.
Gandolfini, in his final screen role, delivers one of his best big screen performances – he is quiet too, his shoulders hunched from carrying too much weight. He’s more bitter than anything else – bitter that after everything he’s gone through, he is still broke, still working at the same bar, and is being pushed around by people he hates. It’s a brilliant performance by Gandolfini.
ReplyDeleteHe was excellent in this film. It was his bar, and he has lost control of it years ago, but he still wanted to hold onto it as being "his" place. You wrote a very apt and eloquent description of Gandolfini's performance.
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