Locke

Locke is a film that has been badly misconstrued in some quarters.  Any suggestion that it is a gripping thriller is far from the truth.  In reality, director Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) has created a interesting character study, that takes place solely on the drive from Birmingham to London and stars Tom Hardy and only Tom Hardy.

The premise of the story is simple and the less you know the better.  Ivan Locke (Hardy) is driving on the aforementioned motorway and while he does so he is engaging in a wide range of telephone conversations, most of which are being conducted in an attempt to try and hold his life together.

It’s an incredibly simple idea and the film is incredibly simple in it’s execution.  It just show’s Hardy, the drive and some scenic shots of the motorway.  Everyone else involved is heard over the phone, with the likes of Olivia Colman and Ruth Wilson providing their voices.  Most of the conversation focuses on Locke trying to keep his family together and make sure that some concrete gets poured correctly.  The man himself is summed up by the fact that those two tasks are afforded equal importance.

This simplicity is both the weakness and the strength of this film.  Hardy is fantastic and his Welsh accident is near perfect.  He holds the entire thing together and he makes these conversations worth listening to.  However, even at the relatively short time of an hour and fifteen minutes, this film still drags at times.  There is only so much motorway and concrete the average person can take before they begin to glance at their watch.

Locke is an interesting experiment that doesn’t always succeed.  Hardy proves his acting chops with an engaging performance that is the films saving grace, but too often the constant talk of concrete and the sweeping shots of busy motorways has you drifting off like your stuck in the back seat of a long car journey.