7) James Gandolfini In The Drop
Michael R. Roskam’s underrated crime drama The Drop is notable for four main reasons: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts and James Gandolfini, in his final film appearance (he died aged 51, not long after filming on The Drop completed, of a heart attack).
In this movie, it’s the actors that tell the story, and for Gandolfini it was one last opportunity to prove why he was such a reliable mainstay of the gangster picture.
Though Hardy, Rapace and Schoenaerts are all excellent, it’s Gandolfini who’s the hard heart of the film. As an ex-crime boss reduced to working for the Chechen mobsters that took over his turf, the actor projects a heavy sense of disappointment. He’s a picture of a man living a life he never expected: one of mediocrity and subservience.