Building menace takes the place of brainless gunplay and excessive violence in The Drop, a new crime drama with an emphasis on the drama. The film does have its violence, and its gunplay, but it achieves its effects elsewhere.
Dennis Lahane wrote the screenplay from his own short story, “Animal Rescue.” And Michael Roskam directs, mostly in the same methodical style evinced in his 2011 Belgian Oscar nominee Bullhead.
Together, Lehane and Roskam combine to establish a sense of identity and place, taking time to register small details — an insignia on a coffee cup, a close-up of a stopped watch, the names of plaster saints in a condemned church. Separately, these amount to little, but taken together, they help build a flavorful portrait of a Brooklyn neighborhood overrun with Chechen mobsters.
Another throwaway detail comes when Detective Ortiz (John Torres) mentions to bartender Bob (Tom Hardy) that he sees Bob almost every day at Mass. Why, the detective asks, does Bob never take communion? The casual question lies dormant for much of the film, forgotten until near the end, when Bob’s communion absence reveals much about him.
Detective Ortiz talks to Bob because of robbery the night before at the bar. As the lawman follows up, a careful plot unfolds involving the bar’s titular owner, Marvin (the late James Gandolfini), the Chechens and Eric (Matthias Schoenaerts), a menacing local man who allegedly committed an earlier neighborhood murder. Other plot lines seem disconnected but play into the escalating tension, such as a reappearing local woman, Nadia (Noomi Rapace), and an abused and abandoned dog rescued by Bob.
Throughout it all, Bob seems to float on the edges of the drama, barely involved with what goes on around him. He becomes so nonthreatening and almost passive, someone remarks about him: “No one ever sees you coming.” Hardy plays Bob as a slow-witted, slow-talking boob, someone anyone can push around. Until they can’t.
Director Roskam’s greatest asset lies in selling his story on its surfaces. Audiences may be anticipating constant action or mayhem, but the interesting activity lies beneath. For what he has made is not an action-thriller, but a character study.
MOVIE RATING
The Drop
***
Rated R, 106 minutes
Opens Friday, Sept. 12
