It still doesn’t seem right at all, talking about James Gandolfini’s “final role,” but that’s the sad reality of Cousin Marv in Michaël R. Roskam’s The Drop. Gandolfini and Tom Hardy star as two Brooklyn guys who launder money through their bar for some gangsters with a routine of money drops, but things get really stressful for them when two gunmen steal the mob’s money. “Do you know whose money this is?” Gandolfini asks the masked men. “Probably the government of China,” they’d respond before having a serious discussion about the current state of the U.S. economy.
The Drop also has something to do with an adorable lost pit bull pup, and while we’ve yet to even see if this film is any good, I don’t think I’m being too bold by saying that a buddy comedy spinoff with the pit bull and Hardy would be a very delightful idea.
THE DROP is a new crime drama from Michaël R. Roskam, the Academy Award-nominated director of BULLHEAD. Based on a screenplay from Dennis Lehane (MYSTIC RIVER, GONE BABY GONE), THE DROP follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) through a covert scheme of funneling cash to local gangsters – “money drops” – in the underworld of Brooklyn bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv (James Gandolfini), Bob finds himself at the center of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood’s past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living – no matter the cost.