Movies: Gandolfini Goes Out in Style in

This past weekend marked the re- lease of James Gandolfini’s final film, “The Drop.” In this crime drama a lonely somewhat simple minded bartender (Tom Hardy) is caught in the middle of a plot to rob the money left by gangsters at the bar he works at. Unbeknownist to him, the robbery is being plotted by the bar owner himself and his cousin Marvin (Gandolfini).

The film is perfectly paced, and while it does contain similar elements that have appeared in other crime films, it manages to keep things fresh and interesting with great little twists and turns that make it worth a watch.

Tom Hardy is given a great char- acter to perform, and he delivers on it. Hardy’s character, Bob Saginowski, has a lot of similar elements to Billy Bob Thorn- ton’s Karl Childers in “Sling Blade”—that is, someone who appears to be not so bright but has a dark past.

Hardy perfectly conveys the simple and yet hauted bartender. Throughout the film the audience keeps seeing Bob attending a Catholic church, yet he never goes up for communion. This is noticed by a fellow church goer, the lead detec- tive on the cases involved (John Ortiz).

Throughout the film we also see Bob trying desperately to right the wrongs he may have committed and bring a new life to himself. He does this in two ways: (1) he gets a dog and (2) he starts a relationship with a girl named Nadia (Noomi Rapace).

He names the dog Rocco, after Saint Rocco (or Roch), the patron saint of dogs and falsely accused people. This gives a nice foreshadow to future events in the story.

Now, what about James Gandolfini’s role? As I said earlier, this was the perfect role for him to go out on. Gandolfini is, ofcourse,probablybestrememberedfor his role in “The Sorpranos,” in which he played a character who had nearly everything under control.

In this film, however, it is pretty much the exact opposite. He plays a man who wants to have some sense of Mafia credit and wants to be the boss man, Mr. Big. 

But, as the film shows, it is a dream that won’t come true.

To recap, this film is a smartly written film with some great performances and is worth a full price trip to the cinema.