Film Review: Animal Psychology Charges Rugged Thug Tale ‘The Drop’

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CHICAGO – For a film adapted from “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone” author Dennis Lehane, there are no children in danger in “The Drop,” but there is a pit bull puppy named Rocco. The dog’s involvement in the story, an animal who gets as many closeups this side of a Charles Martin Smith film, invites the uncharacteristically blunt metaphor of how creatures fight for power, or even just the impression of power. Dogs bark; thugs try to stand tall.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

“The Drop” tells of a neighborhood watering hole in Brooklyn owned by a guy nicknamed Cousin Marv (James Gandolfini), while his low-key cousin Bob (Tom Hardy) meekly tends the bar. Their lives are a microcosm of American small business in a 1% society, with Marv’s bar now owned by a Chechen gang. They use his place primarily as a “drop” to house their ever-exchanging bookkeep money. Even the church that Bob visits often without ever receiving communion is set to be torn down, the holy territory converted into condos.

Marv’s business is hit with a huge setback when it is robbed after being designated as a drop, a pulsing moment that doesn’t scare Marv and Bob, so much as leave them confused as to who would be naive enough to steal from their vicious boss. The Chechens start their own investigation, while Bob tries to dodge questions from a curious investigator (John Ortiz) of whom Bob also has a non-verbal acquaintanceship with at their shared church.

Bob’s quiet existence of living alone in his childhood home is complicated when he discovers an abandoned pit bull puppy in a trash can outside the house of a woman named Nadia (an underutilized Noomi Rapace), that he soon befriends. His impromptu pet Rocco brings him closer together with Nadia, but it also causes the sporadic visit from a strange ruffian (Matthias Schoenaerts) who often steps into Bob’s personal space, claiming to be the dog’s rightful owner.

Continue reading for Nick Allen’s full review of “The Drop”

‘The Drop’
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight

Continue reading for Nick Allen’s full review of “The Drop”