Never underestimate a nerd, or anyone for that matter. How’s that for some bone-chilling advice? The Drop is the perfect reminder to us all that being pleasant and agreeable doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not capable of handing yourself, or just plain crazy. Ever heard of the saying “beware of the quiet ones?” You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen it, but in case you haven’t, here’s what you can look forward to.
Everything You Need To Know
Fair warning, this movie barely has a plot. But wait, let me qualify that statement. No disrespect to the writer (Dennis Lehane) who originally wrote the novel that The Drop is based on, I’m sure it’s awesome, but for some reason it didn’t necessarily translate to the most epic storyline for a movie. The Drop centers on the life of mild mannered bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy). For the most part, Bob leads a pretty dull life, other than the fact that he works at his cousin Marv’s (James Gandolfini) bar, which is now a drop site for the Chechen mob, and he kind of shares a dog with a hot damaged girl (Roomi Rapace) he happened upon late one night coming home from work. Again, it’s not the best premise, but you should still see it. In my humble opinion, there are still plenty of other reasons to watch this movie, starting with Tom Hardy, I mean the entire cast.
Aside from starring as the lead character, Bob Saginowski, you may remember that Tom Hardy is the actor that scared the crap out of us all when he played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Aside from his killer portrayal of the intimidating and ruthless Batman villain, you may have also seen Hardy in Star Trek: Nemesis, Inception, Lawless, and Mad Max: Fury Road. And I’m just getting started with the cast. Then, there’s cousin Marv, played by the late James Gandolfini. In his final role, Gandolfini slayed his portrayal of the once big shot bar owner/loan shark in the neighborhood turned yes-man for the Chechen mob. Not that anybody would go against the Chechen mob, right? You may remember James from his portrayal of the mob boss Tony Soprano in that small HBO series called The Sopranos.
Rounding out the major cast of characters is Noomi Rapace, who delivered a haunting portrayal of Nadia. Remember the hot damaged girl I mentioned earlier? That’s Nadia. You may remember seeing Noomi play a similar role, as Lisbeth Salander, in the Millennium Series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.
The Point…I Think
It’s kind of hard to watch a Tom Hardy film, with the likes of James Gandolfini mind you, and not think that something terrible is going to go wrong at some point. And while The Drop is a slow pace movie that basically allows you to voyeuristically tag along in Bob’s mostly uneventful life, if you have any sense of Tom Hardy’s filmography, you’re pretty much waiting for the proverbial ball to drop. There has to be some crazy, right? Right. And trust me, this movie does not disappoint in that particular department.
We’ve all seen movies where the actual killer is the one that nobody suspected; well The Drop isn’t far from that. I’m not saying Bob Saginowski is some cold-blooded killer terrorizing the streets of Nu Yok (you have to say it like in the movies), but he isn’t exactly innocent either. Let’s just say, dude had his reasons for doing what he did, even if it was unsettling to watch. He may have appeared to be intimidated by others throughout the movie, but like all of us, Bob Saginowski also had a line that when somebody crossed there are consequences. It’s just that his version of consequences was probably a bit more drastic, and volatile than yours and mine may be. The point being, I think, is that we never really know what people are capable of. We all, perhaps, wear a facade. What’s yours?
The Drop is currently streaming on HBO Go and available for purchase on Blu-ray.