Review of The Drop (2014) by Matias V — 11 Jan 2015

A dog that bites never barks.

Michael R. Roskam is one of those directors who are concerned about each layer of the story that he's trying to tell and that works every detail with neatness and with the purpose of that, these last, turns into small pieces of extra information given to the spectator, with the intention to draw closer, with tension and patience, to endings that he, very well, knows how to treat. The drop is a film that you should hear, see, feel and interpret everything.

Following the same line of his great first work (Bullhead. ), Roskam prints in a notable (as always.) Tom Hardy, a manly character of hidden pasts and intermittent violence that the only thing he wants is walking through life without further complications. This existence, in particular, is a sweet, clumsy guy that serves drinks in a bar that bears the name of his cousin, but that belongs to fearful Chechnyans, where the lives can do nothing more than get complicated. Supporting Hardy in a very good way, we find Noomi Rapace, the Belgian Matthias Schoenaerts and the late James Gandolfini who delivers a sublime, nostalgic, and final interpretation taken from his favorite niche.

The Drop is a story filled with metaphors and concise small details that work together to reveal the violence that lies in every man, guided by the hand by a great and meticulous direction and a dark script made by a writer always faithful to his style (Dennis Lehane. ). Each shot which seems to have no direction, each red light that seemed to fall at random moments and each word that seems to be lost, are an element with a purpose or a symbol waiting to be discovered. With patience, coldness and care, the Drop stresses his year as one of the best films of the criminal underworld.

Tom Hardy 2014.

Locke: Very Super great: 10/10.

Peaky Blinders: Great: 7/10.

The Drop: Very Great: 8/10.