ANCHOR INTRO: KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando says audiences who loved actor Tom Hardy as the villain in The Dark Knight Rises may be surprised by his quiet, low key performance in The Drop. The film opens this weekend. Tom Hardy plays Bob, a bartender who introduces us to his world. CLIP You see in Brooklyn, money changes hands all night long. It’s not the kind of money you can deposit in a bank but all that money, it needs to end up somewhere they call it a drop bar. The bar Bob works at gets robbed on the night it’s been chosen as a drop. The crime dredges up old secrets and new threats, like Eric Deeds who attempts to extort money from Bob over his dog. CLIP Listen you want the dog you give me ten, simple… Listen to me pal, you can’t come walking into people’s lives and expect them… Listen to me, that is life, that’s what it is, people like me come along when you’re not looking. The Drop is a film about misdirection. It’s cleverly laid out even though some of the twists are a bit obvious. But it works because it’s about the people more than the plot. Hardy proves that Bob’s stillness can be as riveting as Bane’s rages. The film also marks the impressive American debut of Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam, who gave us the stunningly disturbing Bullhead. “The Drop” is a smartly crafted film that turns what could be a standard crime thriller into something richer. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
Audiences who loved actor Tom Hardy as the villain Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" may be surprised by his quiet, low-key performance in "The Drop" (opening September 12 throughout San Diego).
Tom Hardy plays Bob, a bartender who introduces us to his world in an opening voice-over narration in “The Drop.”
“You see in Brooklyn, money changes hands all night long. It’s not the kind of money you can deposit in a bank but all that money, it needs to end up somewhere they call it a drop bar,” Bob says.
The bar Bob works at gets robbed on the night it’s been chosen as a drop. The crime dredges up old secrets that involve a popular athlete who went missing after leaving the bar. The bar used to be owned by Bob's cousin Marv, played by the late James Gandolfini. But now Bob just manages it for some local thugs. Bob keeps to himself and that seems to allow him to stay on the periphery of the crime world that seeps into the neighborhood. Bob also finds escape in an abused puppy he rescues and adopts, and the friendship he fosters with Nadia (Noomi Rapace), who helps him care for the dog.
But those worlds eventually overlap as a man named Eric Deeds (the brilliant Matthias Schoenaerts from “Bullhead”) abruptly appears and starts to shake things up. He claims to be the dog’s owner and tries to extort money from Bob by threatening the pooch. He asks for $10,000 and Bob pushes back and says, “You can’t come walking into people’s lives,” but Deeds retorts: “Listen to me, that is life, that’s what it is, people like me come along when you’re not looking.”
That’s a great line and it points to a key element of the film: misdirection. It’s about focusing on one thing only to be blindsided by another. It’s cleverly laid out even though some of the twists are quite obvious. Yet it works because we care more about the people than the plot. These characters hold out attention and do not always behave in ways we expect. And the film maintains a provocative moral ambivalence that makes it far more interesting than the typical Hollywood film.
Much credit goes to Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam who makes a compelling American debut with this film version of Dennis Lehane’s novel. Roskam previously worked with Schoenaerts on the Oscar-nominated “Bullhead.” In that film as in “The Drop,” he creates characters that have a mysterious past that colors who they are now. Both Schoenaerts and Roskam prove that their talents export impressively to the U.S.
Both Schoenaerts and Hardy are actors with imposing physical presences and they square off well in this film. Hardy first gained attention for his in your face performance as “Bronson” in the film of that name, but has recently been displaying a subtler side to his talents with the one-man show “Locke” and now “The Drop.” He proves that Bob’s stillness can be as riveting as Bane’s rages. His Bob initially strikes us as a bit slow or dim, and with some characteristics that make him seem like a housebroken Travis Bickle – better behaved but with some kind of emotional or social disconnect. He’s fascinating and he anchors the film. James Gandolfini, who passed away last year, makes Marv a wounded man and that’s a dangerous thing.
“The Drop” (rated R for some strong violence and pervasive language) is a smartly crafted film that turns what could be a standard crime thriller into something richer.
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