A New York Bar, 'Cousin Marv', formerly owned by Marv (Gandolfini), but muscled out by Chechen mobsters, who leave him as manager, but take all the profits. By Marv's side is Bob (Hardy). The Bar is part of a network, where money is constantly hands, for any variety of deeds. Best not to ask too many questions. But one Bar will be assigned 'the drop', amd this is where all the money will be left behind the car to be collected and handed over to the powers that be. And sometimes it can be a tidy sum.
One night two small hoods decide to rob the takings from the Bar, despite knowing who owns the bar, and risking deadly retribution, they go ahead, and profit by a few thousand dollars. But soon the Police are investigating, and also the Chechens are keen to reclaim their money.
In a seemingly seperate strand, when walking from the Bar one night, Bob hears a cry, and finds an abandoned dog in someones trash can. Nadia is the owner of the trashcan, and both she and Bob take a shine to the dog, and possibly to each other.
The downside is that the owner of the Dog turns up, a rather nasty piece of work - Eric, who is wanted in connection with a recent murder, and it seems he has a past connection with Nadia, and is keen to get both his Dog and Nadia back, and extort both money and information from Bob.
As you can see all the strands start to merge together, as not only is Eric keen to line his pockets with Chechen money but someone else is looking to do the same.
It is very much a dialogue and characeter driven piece, there are no larger than life characters, no big over the top gestures, just everyday people, surviving, and it makes for great viewing. There is the odd surprise along the way.
The three main leads are all excellent, as one would expect. Hardy is especially good as the quiet and soft spoken Bob.
A great film, which reminds us all what a great actor James Gandolfini was, and why he will continue to be missed........8 out of 10
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