“The Drop,” a crime drama based on Dennis Lehane’s 2009 short story, “Animal Rescue,” stars James Gandolfini, Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, and John Ortiz, and is a very well-made movie featuring Gandolfini in his last completed role.
Hardy is a bartender named Bob Saginowski, with Gandolfini playing his cousin Marv, who is also his employer. They work at a bar, which is the site of money drops, a place used by its Chechen mobster owners as a deposit spot for dirty money collected during the day. Marv was once the owner of the bar, but was forced out by the Chechens, whom he feels bitter towards.
One day, the bar is robbed by two armed masked intruders. They demand all the money from Marv and he gives them $5,000. Marv is upset for some reason when Saginowski tells one of the officers at the scene, Detective Torres (John Ortiz), that one of the men was wearing a wristwatch that was stopped at a particular time. This is an important clue to later developments in the film, but I don’t want to spoil the plot.
Torres is a very religious man, as we see him going to church and taking communion. He mentions to Saginowski, who also regularly attends mass, that the church they go to will soon be closing and probably developed into condominiums.
What Torres also finds interesting and mentions to Saginowski is that he never sees him taking communion – this despite the fact that Saginowski has been going to church for many years. Keep this clue in mind as the movie progresses. We come to realize that Torres is a smart detective and Ortiz gives a good performance that comes off as realistic.
Noomi Rapace’s character, Nadia, comes into the picture when Saginowski hears a dog moaning in a garbage can that happens to belong to her. The dog has been visibly beaten and Saginowski considers taking the dog in, but doesn’t know if he’d be able to care for it. He tells Nadia to hold on to the dog and he’ll return in a couple days with a decision. When he comes back, he decides to take the dog and has Nadia help him pick out items to help him tend to the dog.
Saginowski develops a paternal instinct of sorts once he has the dog and begins to develop a real affection for it. A tender side emerges and this manifests itself as well in a romantic interest he takes in Nadia, a woman who has low self-esteem and seems secretive about her past. Rapace shows us a woman who is afraid to trust again, but might be willing to give this new guy a chance.
The scenes between Nadia and Saginowski ring true as Saginowski begins to see himself as a protector of sorts to Nadia, as well as the dog. Their romance seems to develop naturally as these two lonely individuals try to connect on a deeper level. While Rapace doesn’t have that much to work with with her character, the performance does work.
Saginowski’s dog attracts the attention of Eric Deeds, a low life played by Matthias Schoenaerts, who claims that the dog Saginowski has is actually his and he wants it back. Schoenaerts gives a menacing, creepy performance as someone you don’t want to mess with.
There were some shortcomings in the film. It was not believable that Saginowski would open his front door to a complete stranger (Deeds), especially one he saw at a park that made him uneasy. Also, I didn’t buy why Saginowski would meet one-on-one with Deeds later on, when Saginowski had reason to fear the guy. In addition, it seemed more like it would be uncle Marv, as opposed to cousin Marv; Gandolfini looked more like a father figure to Hardy’s character.
Both Hardy and Gandolfini give performances that are multilayered and subdued. Hardy’s character is reminiscent in ways of Viggo Mortensen’s character in “A History of Violence,” two men who are waging an internal struggle with good and evil.
The movie does a really good job holding your attention, with dramatic plot developments you don’t see coming.
