"The Drop" an 8 out of 10 on the JWO Movie Rating Scale

For my choice of movies for my birthday  (no vetoes allowed on birthday weekend movie choices,) , I chose “The Drop” over other blockbuster movies to see.  If for no other reason, I wanted to see the late great James Gandolfini’s  last movie.   It’s a small, slow moving slice of life movie about a group of people in Brooklyn.  Gandolfini plays Marv, the former owner of a bar who still manages the bar for Chechnya Criminals. He is a former loan shark, way past his best days living with his sister with a mother in a nursing home that he cannot afford.  Tom Hardy plays Marv’s cousin Bob who tends bar and  used to be involved in Marv’s crew years before.  Hardy plays Bob completely low key, I think maybe too low key, but I guess that is the point.  At times you are not sure if he has aspersers, or if he is just a simple quiet guy, or a genius with deep but silent thoughts.  He might just be all three.  There are a number of intertwining storylines that work their way through the movie, including Tom’s relationship with a woman, rescuing a dog, and a robbery of the bar.  The one thing I didn’t like about the movie is that I figured out the ending fairly early on.  But those storylines are all contrivances for the movie’s deeper meanings.  The movie raises a number of deep questions for us to ponder. And God knows I live for deep questions to ponder.  Is it better to be alone or to be connected with others?  Is there redemption for the sins of our past?  How do we (can we ever) overcome the suffering in our life?  How do we deal with fear? Examining the danger of trying to live in the past or worse, recreating an illusionary version of our past?  Can we be both righteous and good and evil at the same time.  Why do we crave respect from others?  How people come into our lives for better and for worse when we are not ready and how to be open and deal with it. How do the circumstances of our life shape us and can we transcend that. What are we willing to sacrifice for what we want?  Good ideas to be raised and explore.  It is both a simple and complex movie wrapped into one. Just the kind of movie I like.