Although James Gandolfini was not a one-note actor, he will always be associated with Tony Soprano, the role that gained him fame. Admittedly, his blunt-faced, hulking appearance would have inclined him toward gangsters and tough guys even if “The Sopranos” had never happened. In The Drop, completed before his death last year, Gandolfini plays Marv, a one-time neighborhood kingpin reduced to operating the bar he once owned as a front for Chechen criminals.
As Marv, Gandolfini doesn’t have to say much; his physical presence makes him the natural center of gravity in any room. Marv exudes genial malice while tending bar in rough, working-class Brooklyn and is understandably unhappy in his reduced role as underling to foreign interlopers. Nurturing a convoluted scheme to get back at the Chechens, Marv grasps at a chance to escape a life that has hit dead end.
The Drop’s star role, however, belongs to Marv’s cousin Bob (Tom Hardy), auxiliary bartender and all around schlep. Bob is the film’s protagonist, a hard-working guy who seldom complains and goes to mass each day for the tidings of peace being proffered. Bob comes across as simple and good hearted; he lets the broke old lady drink for free, to Marv’s annoyance. Rescuing an injured dog from a garbage can on a cold night, he gets to know a woman with a troubled past, Nadia (Noomi Rapace). She draws a psychotic, violent ex-boyfriend into Bob’s circle.
Directed by Oscar-nominated Belgian director Michaël Roskam (Bullhead), The Drop makes good use of its rundown urban setting—a place where dreams have diminished, expectations have dimmed and glory days are memories. Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) wrote the screenplay from his short story “Animal Rescue,” transferring the locale from Boston to Brooklyn without losing any surface grit or pervasive Catholic guilt. A sturdy crime drama supported by a solid cast, The Drop is the kind of movie American directors once excelled in making. Like the Chechens who pushed out the old Mob, the foreigners have taken the field.
