The Drop is a magnificently miserable crime drama and the final film of James Gandolfini

MOVIE review: If we are to learn anything from the magnificently miserable crime drama The Drop, it is that there is no honour among thieves.

Scene from movie The Drop. Fox films.

But there are rules. Stick to them, and you just might stick around to see another day.

The title refers to a traditional obligation asked of the bars and clubs in a grotty corner of Brooklyn.

Every once in a while, each of these booze joints must take a turn at being “the drop”: local slang for a place where hot cash from the proceeds of crime can be held until everything cools down.

Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace in The Drop. Picture: Supplied

If you are a proprietor, the illegal practice is a necessary evil. The mobsters who avail themselves of this service also offer a level of protection that can’t be bought elsewhere.

As The Drop begins in earnest, a busy Brooklyn bar known as Cousin Marv’s has been tapped to take in a truckload of dodgy dough for some Chechen gangsters.

Cousin Marv himself (James Gandolfini) is none too pleased about the imposition.

Resentful of the way in which the Chechens and their ilk have stomped all over his neighbourhood, Marv engineers a scheme that will save him some face. And make his some money.

Marv knows better than to involve his bar manager Bob (Tom Hardy).

He has seen his share of trouble in the past, and is not looking to attract any more. For Bob, a quiet and reflective fellow, the desire to turn over a new leaf is a daily grind.

Visits to church keep him centred.

So too does the rearing of a little bull-terrier pup Bob found abandoned in a sidewalk trash can. As originally penned by author Dennis Lehane, the downbeat, hardscrabble story told by The Drop originally took place in Boston.

Bob (Tom Hardy) with his rescued bull-terrier pup in The Drop. Picture: Supplied.

The relocation to Brooklyn for the big screen adaptation doesn’t diminish the dosage of dread being administered here as everything goes from bad to worse for everyone connected to Cousin Marv’s bar.

As we already know from Clint Eastwood’s superb adaptation of Lehane’s novel Mystic River, the author has an eye and an ear for the things a desperate man will do and say under pressure.

This is actually Lehane’s first try at a screenplay in his own right, and he’s not out to make friends or soothe nerves on any front.

Lead actors Hardy and Gandolfini (in his screen swan song) know they are working with material of the highest calibre here, and respond with intensely authentic performances that do justice to a killer script.

James Gandolfini and Tom Hardy in The Drop. Picture: Supplied

The uncompromising nature of The Drop — and the all-but-guaranteed likelihood of an unhappy ending for all — means this will not be the first choice of viewers looking a for a night of easy escapism at the cinema.

However, anyone feeling up to the fight will roll with every menacing or melancholy punch that lands with devastating precision.

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> THE DROP [MA15+] - Film of the week

Rating: 4/5

Director: Michael R. Roskam (Bullhead)

Starring: Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace, John Ortiz.

“Where better to take a fall than in a dive bar?”

Actor Matthias Schoenaerts stands over Tom Hardy in a scene from The Drop. Picture: Supplies

Originally published as The Drop is a magnificently miserable crime drama and the final film of James Gandolfini