If you're pining for Love/Hate this weekend, Harry Guerin says the Tom Hardy-starring crime thriller The Drop will help to ease the pain.
The author George Pelecanos summed up his excellent heist story Shoedog as a thriller that was "meant to be read perhaps in one long afternoon, with the reader seated on the subway or on a park bench or in a bar, or simply adrift in the city, lost in the book".
It's a description that perfectly fits his peer Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island) quick-read The Drop, which began life as a short story called Animal Rescue and then was expanded and re-titled on both page and screen.
The book of The Drop is a joy when you have a long afternoon to yourself, and Lehane's own adaptation is a fine rainy day/night movie with much to recommend, even if some of the character nuances and pacing mastery are lost in the transition. Put it this way: if you like crime movies, urban westerns and that Seventies vibe, you should see it.
Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) works behind the counter at Cousin Marv's (James Gandolfini) place - Marv's name is on the sign, but the Chechen mob are the real owners. The post-Christmas slump proves quite the rollercoaster for socially awkward, victim of habit Bob: he finds a puppy in a bin, the bar is robbed and he befriends a woman called Nadia (Noomi Rapace) through the rescued dog. While he may look like the gears are slowly grinding in his head, Bob's a real thinker, and there'll be plenty of soul-searching to be done as the three events link together in the days to come.
It's been a very good year on screen for Tom Hardy. First, there was his performance in the riveting, man-behind-the-wheel-and-on-the-phone motorway thriller Locke, and now he's brilliantly brought the mumbling Bob Saginowski to life. Bob's a character who you just know has more of a clue than he lets on, and one who is a perfect example of how it takes a wise man to play the fool. There is some beautiful chemistry between Hardy and the late Gandolfini in his final film - the heartbreak of watching him made even harder by the fact that he looks unwell throughout. The Drop will remind you, yet again, that you spent time with one of the true greats.
In terms of casting, look and feel, none of the decisions here could have been bettered. But just as the adaptation of Gone Girl felt like it was rushing to cram everything in, so too is The Drop in too much of a hurry, with an extra half-hour needed to do justice to the build-up and climax. Character-wise, this is most apparent with Matthias Schoenaerts' Eric Deeds, a real page-turner of a wrong 'un but here denied the screen time he deserves.
If you're going, get the book afterwards and see if you agree. Knowing the ending will not take too much from the pleasure of reading it.
3.5/5
