The Drop

So I saw The Drop and it was really engrossing. It's a fairly slow-paced crime drama with lots of tension and a sort of overwhelming sense of melancholy. It's a weird movie to come out in the fall, because it's so heavily set in the dead of winter in Brooklyn (the time span is just after Christmas to the Super Bowl). As opposed to some crime movies, where thieves and gangsters are presented as glamorous and breaking the law is presented as a great equalizer that allows people on the bottom to get to the top, here being on the wrong side of the law seems just as desperate and seemingly hopeless as being on the right side. So instead of being a tough guy and turning into rich powerful Tony Soprano, in this movie James Gandolfini is just Cousin Marv, the guy who runs the local bar that's actually owned by the Russian mob.

The real standout to me was Tom Hardy, his character Bob was a very interesting cipher to me. Sort of a mix of a guy who just didn't want and trouble and a little bit of Lenny from Of Mice and Men, though as the movie goes on it's clear that Bob is actually has some hidden depths that he doesn't want to return to.  This combined to make there be a number of confrontations and conversations in the film that were incredibly tense and powerful, despite not much being said or happening.

In all I really enjoyed this movie.  If I had to name some negatives I'd say that I wish Noomi Rapace had had a little more to do, as she's just kind of "the girl in peril" here. Beyond that though, definitely worth your time!