The short story Animal Rescue proved to be the launchpad for The Drop, the final film of the decorated career of the beloved James Gandolfini. The Sopranos legend has a supporting role in this Michael Roskam-directed film headlined by Tom Hardy, which like its inspiration is penned by Dennis Lehane. And now we have a trailer for The Drop, which opens on September 19th.
And, well... this sure looks like a bleak September film. Hardy appears to be the soft-spoken bartender at a dirty New York establishment where mobsters exchange dirty laundry for filthy cash. Eventually, however, Hardy seems to have his fill of the corruption and the chaos, and he takes action to curtail their actions, though this inspires conflict with the bar owner played by Gandolfini. Presumably there is an injured puppy at the heart of the conflict, one that he and Noomi Rapace adopt. And if you do a Google search, you can find eleventy billion pictures of Hardy and Rapace and that dog and THEY ARE ADORABLE.
The cast includes Matthias Schoenaerts and John Ortiz, and even though it's got a pretty harsh New York milieu, you hope they don't take any shortcuts. Director Roksam last helmed the Belgian thriller Bullhead starring Schoenaerts, and you hope he understands the atmosphere better than the recent Blood Ties. That film, which takes place in 1970's New York, starred Schoenaerts, Clive Owen and Marion Cotillard as New Yorkers, a mistake that ultimately crippled a decent cops-and-robbers thriller from French filmmaker Guillaume Canet.
Fox Searchlight has had this one finished for awhile (hence, Gandolfini's appearance) and they presumably have higher, possibly awards-themed expectations for the film. Maybe they'll launch an awards campaign for Hardy's sort-of ridiculous, high-pitched New Yorker accent, like he's playing a brutish bartender like John Cazale. Oh, Tom. You and the accents.
