"Bob" (Tom Hardy) and his cousin "Marv" (James Gandolfini) run a bar that is regularly used for the anonymous drop - money paid to their Chechen landlords - and all goes fine until it is robbed. They are tasked with retrieving the money and are soon immersed in a cycle of gangland betrayal and deception that isn't helped by a police investigation into another murder, and the curious "Eric Deeds" (Matthias Schoenaerts) whose dog "Bob" has rescued from maltreatment. Nobody knows who to trust and director Michaël Roskam manages to use the talent at his disposal, alongside some effective lighting and a careful build up of the pace to help this better-than-average thriller work up to it's clever conclusion. Noomi Rapace ("Nadia") features only sparingly, and Hardy's accent maybe isn't the best - but the complexities of the plot as well as a reasonable attempt to develop the characterisations into people we cared a little about do help this stand out. Hardy shows us that he has the ability to deliver a slightly more multi-dimensional persona and this is a good watch with quite a quirky ending.
