Cast: Tom Hardy is becoming one of my favorite actors. Since Inception, I liked him in anything I've seen him in, even an overall uneven movie like Lawless. He pulls off a strange balance in The Drop of being both a character that says a lot who is also pretty quiet. It's James Gandolfini's final movie role, so that's an interesting factor. It's a fine role. Nothing fancy. It's not a showy role. Only remarkable in that it's his last. Noomi Rapace does solid work too. It's all more plot-driven than a character study.
Plot: It's the first screenplay from the guy who wrote the books for Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island, which should tell you enough. Bob (Hardy) is a bartender at his cousin Marv's (Gandolfini) bar. The movie begins by explaining how drop points for the mob in New York work and goes on to show how Marv's bar is one of the rotating drop points where the money for the city is collected. It's clear immediately that Bob has done some things he's not proud of, but he's more or less a good guy now. One night, he finds a puppy in the trash can of a woman's house. He keeps the dog and bonds with the woman (Rapace). The story gets some extra layers from there: ex-boyfriends, unsolved murders, a cop doing some digging around. It's all a very small story and I was struck by how tense it got at times, in a large part thanks to Hardy's very paced delivery. As I mentioned earlier, he's a guy with a lot to say, but he's not a fast talker. It's an interesting choice. By the end, everything in the movie is much more tied together than I expected. It reminded me a lot of Killing Them Softly with the small scale and grittiness. I preferred this though and I'm not completely sure why. Probably because of the puppy.
Elephant in the Room: How's Hardy's accent? Yeah, he puts on a Brooklyn accent. Well, it's the accent of a guy who grew up in Brooklyn. It was distinctive and not in a bad way. Hardy seems to do that well. Again, I tend to like Hardy's decisions as an actor and this falls in line with that. As you can tell, I struggled to locate the elephant for this movie.
To Sum Things Up:
One of the very few upsides about the September doldrums in the box office is that there's a movie or two that I'll get to see that I wouldn't otherwise. I saw Prisoners last year and Killing Them Softly the year before (noticing a pattern). The Drop isn't an awards contender, nor will it gain a cult following. It's simply a solid movie that's fans of the genre will enjoy.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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