A quiet barkeep finds a puppy — and trouble
The Drop (out of 4) Starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts and James Gandolfini. Directed by Michael R. Roskam. Opens Friday Sept. 12 at GTA theatres. 106 minutes. 14A
For most of the past year, it seemed the underworld drama The Drop would be remembered mainly as the last major screen performance by James Gandolfini, whose untimely death in 2013 robbed us of a fine actor.
And he’s spot-on in the role of Marv, owner of the seedy Brooklyn bar that carries his name.
It’s also the place where the film’s title literally happens on a regular basis: fat envelopes of gangster loot are slid into a safe beneath the beer taps, the cops and regular punters none the wiser.
But it’s not Gandolfini who defines this slight yet compelling Englishlanguage debut by Belgian director Michael R. Roskam ( Bullhead), which screenwriter Dennis Lehane ( Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) adapted from his own short story, Animal Rescue.
That honour goes to Tom Hardy, a fabulous chameleon whose greater notoriety as Batman’s ferocious nemesis Bane vanishes beneath the worried brow of Bob, The Drop’s narrator, protagonist and most curious figure.
“Nobody ever sees it coming” he tells us, describing how “the drop” system works to collect illegal gains made by the vile Chechen thugs who own the bar.
There’s a wealth of meaning in that statement, but Bob, who has trouble meeting a gaze and who may have mental health issues, also wants us to know that he’s not looking for any trouble: “I just tend bar.”
Trouble comes looking for him, in a roundabout way. On his walk home one night, he hears a pathetic mewling from a garbage can and discovers an abused and injured pit bull puppy inside it.
He also discovers the owner of the garbage can, a mystery woman named Nadia (Noomi Rapace), who at first claims no involvement with the dog and who wants no involvement with Bob.
Compassion, circumstance and loneliness draw them together and also attract a dangerous third party: Nadia’s unstable ex-boyfriend Eric (Matthias Schoenaerts from Bullhead, Roskam’s debut feature).
While the two men clash over ownership of the puppy, effectively joust- ing for Nadia’s attention, the Chechens who own Marv’s tavern decide they need to square accounts, too. An armed robbery at the place seemed more than coincidental to them. The Drop is steeped in a simmering underworld familiar to fans of late directors Sidney Lumet and Arthur Penn, and stripped of primary colours like their ’70s cinema classics. It’s a mundane crime story that risks being a stupid one, owing to the dog-tussle subplot. But Hardy grounds the picture, never allowing it to slip into absurdity. On the contrary, his reticent Bob fascinates, making us wonder what’s really going on behind this very quiet man’s calm exterior. Tom Hardy is a master at keeping his distance even as he draws us in.