The Drop movie review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic reviews....

The Drop is a crime drama about two low level criminals who run a drop bar, which is essentially a place for money laundering. It's directed by Michaël R. Roskam, and is written by Dennis Lahane. The film stars Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Oritz, and James Gandolfini in his last film.

James Gandolfini and Tom Hardy

Seeing as how this is James Gandolfinis last film, it would totally suck if he was not good in the film (or if the film wasn't good for that matter). However, I'm glad to tell you that not only is James Gandolfini good in the film, I think he's great. Admittedly, he reminds me a lot of Tony Soprano in this movie, but for me that's never a negative. Tom Hardy is also pretty good in the movie, rocking a surprisingly realistic Brooklyn accent (especially for a British guy). However, the rest of the cast is kind of bland. They weren't perticularly bad performances, and a few of them had some moments where they were good, it's just they all seemed pretty dull.

Noomi Rapace and Tom Hardy

The writing in the movie is kind of difficult for me, because some aspects of it I loved, and some aspects of it I didn't. The way the story is written is fantastic, and the film takes so many subtle turns that you don't really notice, mainly in the last twenty minutes of the film. The dialogue is also good most of the time, but as I said earlier, the supporting cast in The Drop kinda brings this film down a bit. The dialogue for the two leads is well written, but the other characters were not as well written, and were not as fleshed out.

John Oritz and Tom Hardy

The pacing in the film isn't something that bothered me a whole lot, but I could see it bothering most people. The film is nearly two hours long, but the way everything is set up makes it seem a lot longer, especially the fact that - up until the final twenty minutes of the film - not a whole lot happens. The first hour and a bit are important for the last twenty minutes to be as intense as it is, but there's still that hour you have you get through to get there. To me, that wasn't a big deal, but I can see it bothering people.

Final Rating
The Drop, despite its flaws, is an cool crime movie with a really intense final act. Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini are the only real highlights of the film, in both their performance and their writing. I can see why it might not be some peoples thing, but if you're into crime dramas and can handle a slow start, I'd say check it out.

The Drop: 3.8/5