With his movie Bullhead director Michaël R. Roskam and starring actor Matthias Schoenaerts managed to make a big impression in Hollywood. Schoenaerts appeared in Blood Ties and in this crime drama he reunites with Roskam. It would be the last movie that James Gandolfini would act in.
Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) works together with his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini) in a bar bar in Brooklyn. The local criminals regularly pick out a bar which they will use as a “drop bar”, a location where all the illegal money which is being made is dropped off and where it will be picked up later. When there is a robbery in the bar, the police start an investigation and extremely violent criminals start looking for the people responsible.
Roskam creates a dark and moody atmosphere in a neighbourhood where the last glimmer of hope seems to have disappeared. The people living there struggle to survive and human life doesn’t seem to have much value. Bob comes across as a naive man who wants to live a different life, but keeps being hit with negative events. He meets Nadia (Noomi Rapace) with whom he becomes friends, but her ex-boyfriend Eric Deeds (Schoenaerts) is a serious threat to that friendship.
The Drop is one of those films that has a lot going for itself (the cast is solid, the characters have depth, the atmosphere is good), but where the story (which originally was only a short story) develops just a bit to slow and drawn out to really grab your attention. Whether thats something you can enjoy depends on the person.
I actaully really enjoyed this one, Nostra. There were definitely narrative flaws and too much padding due to its original short story material but I still went with it. And the performances were superb.
Yeah, the performances were good. Happy to hear you enjoyed it more than I did.