(USA, 107 min.)
Dir. Michaël R. Roskam, Writ. Dennis Lehane
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias
Schoenaerts
Programme: World Premiere
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| Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Move over, Uggie, you’re no longer top dog of movieland! The Drop introduces a new four-legged
star to moviegoers this year at the Toronto International Film Festival. His
name is Rocco and he’s the little doggie that could.
Rocco, a pit bull puppy, escapes the trashcan when big-hearted Brooklyn bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) saves him from the bin in The Drop. Bob works in a dive full of seedy characters, but The Drop shows that he’s one of the good guys when he takes the battered little pooch under his wing and nurses it back to help with the aid of Nadia (a strong Noomi Rapace), in whose garbage can he finds the discarded dog. It isn’t Nadia’s dog, of course, but the dog’s allegedly true owner is another kettle of fish whom screenwriter Dennis Lehane introduces later in The Drop’s slow simmer.
Director Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead) presents a grey-toned Brooklyn to match the edge and
coolness of these characters who survive by their own means in a very tough
corner of working class society. Bob’s bar bears the name of Cousin Marv (James
Gandolfini, terrific in his final screen performance) and it acts as one of
several “drop bars” for the local underworld. (A drop bar serves as the place
where gangsters drop their dough.) It’s a Grand
Hotel kind of affair where people come and people go, but only Bob really
stays even though he asserts to Nadia more than once that he’s not part of that
crowd. He claims he is just a bartender.
There’s clearly more to Bob than The Drop lets on. Hardy, big and burly, looks as if he should be playing
Gandolfini’s muscleman, but when two young thugs give Cousin Marv the drop and
run off with five grand in cash, Bob barely moves a muscle. Give him a cute
little puppy, though, and his attention is all yours.
Hardy gives one of his stronger performances as Bob, playing
the character as troubled and brooding, but also sensitive and a little bit
skittish. (First time parent syndrome goes into effect when Bob welcomes Rocco
into the family.) His grasp of the Brooklyn accent is assured and it helps make
a physically intimidating character seem as soft as the puppy under his care. A
late-act reveal makes Hardy’s performance a disappearing act as The Drop shifts perceptions of good and
evil and of right and wrong.
This dark, character-drive crime drama (and yes, Rocco is
very much a character of the film) exists in a grey area of moral ambiguity and
principled haziness. The storylines converge with moralities
weighted on either side as Bob and Marv must decide to face the Chechen gangsters
who own their bar or tip off the well-meaning, churching-going cop (John Ortiz)
eager to help the case. Bob, meanwhile, has the fates of both Rocco and Nadia
in his hands when Eric (Rust & Bone’s
Matthias Schoenaerts), an eerie thug with a reputation, stakes a claim for both.
A few too many subplots and storylines add little, a few
turns seem too obvious, and a few supporting players border upon caricature (cough,
cough, Chechen mobsters), but they’re more than capably overcome by unexpected twists
and strong performances. There is no easy outcome in The Drop—save for violence that only begs more violence—and the screenplay
by Lehane creates an alluringly dangerous world where nobody is really safe or
trustworthy.
There is Rocco, though, and this spirited pit bull makes The Drop something else. He’s too cute
for words, especially looking as tough and battered as he does, and the bond
between pet and master is unlike any other in the film. Rocco is part comic
relief and part symbol as The Drop
fashions a rescue mission in which both Rocco and Bob are in need of salvation.
A dog is man’s best friend, but whether an adorable dog should be the highlight
of a gritty crime drama is another riddle.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
The Drop screens:
-Saturday, Sept. 6 at 11:45 am at the Princess of Wales
-Saturday, Sept. 13 at 3:00 pm at the Princess of Wales
Please visit www.tiff.net for more information on this year’s
Festival.