What you need to know
New York crime drama The Drop has opened in UK cinemas. Michael R Roskam directs the film based on a short story by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) and starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and the late James Gandolfini.
Hardy stars as Bob, a lonely bartender in Brooklyn who finds an abandoned pit bull puppy in a bin on his way home from work. Bob decides to look after the dog while finding himself unwittingly drawn into a series of crooked schemes involving gangland 'money drops'.
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What the critics like
With a great script, Hardy nuzzling a puppy and Gandolfini giving a fantastic final performance, "there's a lot to love in this crime drama", says Tim Robey in the Daily Telegraph. Gandolfini is superb, but it's Hardy, giving his most Brando-esque performance to date, that sneaks up on you.
This is "an urban thriller in the style of Martin Scorsese or Sidney Lumet in his Serpico days", says Geoffrey MacNab in The Independent. It's a film full of character and atmosphere with performances that are as rich and moody as the cinematography.
"There's something especially poignant about watching an actor who is no longer with us doing, one final time, what he did best," says Wendy Ide in The Times. Gandolfini's broken former big shot is haunting here, but it is really Hardy who shines, turning in one of the finest performances of the year.
What they don't like
For all its ponderous tone, this is "lightweight stuff, rehashing familiar neo-noir riffs while over-exercising its central dog's life metaphor", says Mark Kermode in The Observer. Still, few actors do Brando-esque brooding as well as Tom Hardy and there's a winningly gruff last-hurrah from Gandolfini.
