THE DROP - LFF14 - Day Four

THE DROP is an extreeeeeemely slow burning thriller with a fantastic punchline that probably comes about ten minutes too late for the audience. Still, it's well-made, well-acted and as grimy as one would hope from a film based on a Denis Lehane novel.

The film stars Tom Hardy (BRONSON) as Bob - a bartender in Brooklyn so self-effacing he almost looks mentally challenged.  As the film opens he rescues a small battered puppy from the trash can of a similarly vulnerable woman called Nadia (Noomi Rapace - PROMETHEUS).  Naturally they bond, but incredibly slowly as only two introverts can. Meanwhile, the personality hole is filled by James Gandolfini playing a kind of comically unsuccessful version of Tony Soprano - the guy who thought he was something, but was never the guy who was feared, and ultimately ended up losing his bar to the local Brooklyn Chechen gang. This kind of sets up the story. We have the bar being used as a drop for mafia money that some or other people are trying to knock off. We have Nadia's psychokiller ex boyfriend Eric trying to get his dog and girlfriend back. And in the midst of it we have mild-mannered long-suffering Bob.

To say more would ruin the plot twist but all I would say is to go in patient and delighting in the language and the pauses and then just hold on to the finale.  Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and Matthias Schoenaarts in the three main roles seem, to me at least, to do a great job with their Brooklyn accents and to utterly feel their roles. Gandolfini is a a bit more on autopilot but let's not disrespect the man in his final film.  Is the film perfect? By no means. But the payoff is worth it, even if it takes some getting to.

THE DROP played Toronto and London 2014. It was released earlier this year in the USA, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain. It opens later this month in Singapore, Azerbaijan, Hungary, the Netherlands, Russia, Estonia and Kenya. It opens in November in Greece, France, the Philippines, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Hong Kong, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, the UK, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, Portugal, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Norway. It opens in Germany on December 4th, Finland on December 5th, Argentina on December 11th, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 8th, and Italy on March 19th.

GONE BABY GONE - stunning as a mood piece, less convincing as a thriller

GONE BABY GONE is a thriller about a little girl who is abducted from her home in working class Boston. Her mother is a junkie who is evidently an irresponsible mother, but her aunt and uncle are apparently good people who call in the press, the police and private detectives Patrick and Angie. The resulting investigation fails as a thriller. One can only blame Dennis Lehane's source novel and screen-writers Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard's unwillingness to re-work the implausible denouement and character motivations. Sadly, the unconvincing resolution of the case mars the final forty minutes of an otherwise brilliant film.

The brilliance lies in Ben Affleck's ability to render a working class community without being patronising or superficial. The movie feels authentic in its sights and sounds even as the plot gets increasingly hard to swallow. Younger brother Casey delivers a deeply affecting performance as a detective trying to do the right thing; Ed Harris is charismatic as the jaded older cop; and Amy Ryan pulls of her role as the junkie mother well, though I doubt it was really one of the five best female performances of 2007. In smaller roles, Amy Madigan is superb as the pious aunt "Bea". Is all this enough to compensate for the weak plot? Yes, but it's a disappointment all the same.

GONE BABY GONE was released in the US, Canada, Spain, Panama, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, the Philippines, Colombia, Denmark, Belgium and France in 2007. It was released earlier in 2008 in Israel, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Estonia, South Africa, Sweden, Venezuela, Greece, Singapore, Romania, Turkey, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Australia, and Iceland. GONE BABY GONE was meant to play London 2007 and to be released last year but was pulled because of sensitivities surrounding the abduction of Madeleine McCann. It is now on release in the UK but is also available on DVD.