In my review of Enough Said, I write that the performance of Albert by James Gandolfini was the perfect role for his final movie. Albert was such a likable character in that movie. There were no hidden agendas. The man had some flaws, but those flaws weren’t any worse than the flaws you or I have. I wrote that review when I believed Enough Said was Gandolfini’s final movie before he passed away. I still love his role in this movie, but I’m so glad there was still a movie in post-production that I did not know about. The Drop was a fantastic final film for him, and it could earn him a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. In this film, Gandolfini returns to what he is most known for as an actor. He’s a little shady, and there always seems to be more about him than meets the eye. With that sly smile of his eyes, his under-the-breath chuckle, and his ability to say something to one person that is so very endearing one minute, but something to another character that is so brutally honest that it makes the person who is speaking feel stupid the next, Gandolfini is a master of disguising his characters and their intentions. He may have turned in the best big screen performance of his career with his final one.
The screenplay for the drop was written by Dennis Lehane, who is also responsible for penning the instant movie classics Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone, and Mystic River. With The Drop, he has gone 4 for 4 with his movies. This is an important statistic to me. If you can go 4 for 4, I will continue to see any film you are associated with until you make a bad one. And even then, you might have some wiggle room. M. Night Shyamalan had the status early in his career. He has since lost it, and I do not see it returning. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Pearl Jam both have this with their music. It’s not like the Lehane novels made into movies are pretty good. They are fantastic. And while The Drop is undoubtedly the most subdued of any of these films, it’s just as awesome in its unique way. Director Michael R. Roskam (Bullhead), in his second movie, has proven that he is most deserving of a third. His adaptation of the Lehane novel is dark, gritty, and tense without getting loud or unbelieving.
Gandolfini and Lehane are reasons enough to see The Drop, but the movie’s biggest draw, in my opinion, is Tom Hardy. Hardy (Warrior, The Dark Knight Rises) continues to get better and better with each passing film, and it is only a matter of time before he secures an Academy Award nomination. While he was brilliant as Bob Saginowski in The Drop, this will not be the film that earns him his first nomination. This is his most nuanced performance of date, but it’s not the type that the academy recognizes. Hardy, with his heavy New York accent, presents Bob as he does many of his other characters not named Bane. Bob is quiet yet mysterious. His personality is almost set exclusively through non-verbal cues. His eyes look innocent, but there always seems to be an underlying layer you are sure if you see or think you are seeing. He listens intently and is constantly aware of his surroundings. Bob walks with a slight limp. It doesn’t impact him, but it’s just one more non-verbal characteristic that defines his personality. Is Bob as good of a guy as he appears? His “good guy” status is elevated early in the movie when he finds an abused pit bull puppy that he helps nurse back to health and takes him as his own, with the assistance of Nadia (Noomi Rapace – Prometheus, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) whose trashcan he found it in. The two develop an almost immediate friendship. But is it by chance that the two meet, or is there something more to that?
He works as a bartender at Cousin Marv’s. Marv is Gandolfini’s character and is Bob’s cousin. Something under ten years ago forced Marv to sell the bar. But the name doesn’t change. Cousin Marv’s name still hangs over the dingy Brooklyn watering hole. He handles the day-to-day operations but doesn’t get to manage anything over the day-to-day operations. We learn in the film’s early minutes that different bars in parts of New York City serve as “drops,” meaning that one bar on a given night will be the bar where all of the dirty money comes in and is dropped into a standard sort of safe. You never know if or when your bar will be the drop bar. You might learn it weeks ahead of time, or it might be the day before. Cousin Marv’s Bar is one of these bars, so we can assume at some point that we will see the night that the bar is used as the drop at least once. The crew that tells your bar that it is a drop bar is the real thing. Bob and Cousin Marv is dutiful soldiers when they see these men. These are men you don’t want to cross. But is the temptation of having that money in your bar on a given night too great not to take some sort of risk to get it?
When you think you’ve got this movie, you realize you don’t. When you think you’ve figured it out again, you haven’t. I haven’t mentioned the crazy Eric (Matthias Schoenaerts – Bullhead, Blood Ties), who shows up 30-40 minutes into the movie demanding his dog back or money. This movie builds slowly, and there will be those viewers whose patience is tested. I was not one of them. I love slow-building movies if there are solid characters and the payoff at the end is worth it. And for me, this movie succeeded. I’m not sure how much it will make at the box office. The critics have seemed to love it (89% on Rotten Tomatoes). I’m not sure I’d call this a mob movie, but the mob certainly plays a part. All Gandolfini or Hardy fans do need to check this movie out. Is it necessary to see it in the theater? Probably not, but it was great on the big screen. It’s my new movie of the year for 2014, and the first one that I am pretty confident will still be there at the end.
Plot 10/10 (This is my kind of movie. It feels very small-townish, even though the backdrop is the biggest city in the country)
Character Development 10/10 (Slow, methodical, and unforgettable. You are never quite sure what to think about any of the characters)
Character Chemistry 9/10 (I think the relationship between Hardy’s character and Rapace’s character is a little awkward. I think that maybe it is supposed to be, but still…)
Acting 10/10 (Gandolfini and Hardy kill it, but every actor brings a fantastic performance. Regardless of role, each actor has bought in)
Screenplay 10/10 (Lehane is a master novel writer)
Directing 10/10 (In just his second effort, and his first with A-list actors, Michael R. Roskam shows he’s the real deal)
Cinematography 10/10 (When the movie rolls to credits, you’ll believe that that you will be walking to your car in the dead of winter, regardless of what season it actually might be)
Sound 8.5/10 (The music did not have nearly the impact that the music did in either Gone Baby Gone or, more particularly, Mystic River. I did love the quiet undertones that were present throughout, though)
Hook and Reel 8.5/10 (I’m not going to lie. It is slow. It is probably too slow for some, but not for me. I loved the pace but am recognizing that I may be in the minority here)
Universal Relevance 8/10 (I believe this sort of story still happens. I think there are many coincidences that sometimes make it a little hard to believe. But that’s the storytelling aspect of it. We don’t go to the movies to be bored)
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie