Locke

Synopsis: Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is on the road, driving away from the biggest non-military concrete pour in UK history. He’s meant to be supervising it. Instead he’s on the road, taking a constant stream of phone calls from irate employers and a puzzled wife.

There’s a scene late in Locke that’s so painfully obvious that a lesser director and actor would have failed to carry it off. It’s a testament to both Tom Hardy and Stephen Knight that the scene remains compelling while also slugging you with the moral of the story. Ivan Locke’s life revolves around pouring concrete and he tells his hapless second-in-command the importance of a solid foundation. One tiny slip-up, one thing missed during the pour, and years later a skyscraper will come tumbling down. That’s the film summed up in a sentence but it’s a strangely mesmerising experience to watch it fleshed out as a man’s life falls apart.

Locke is Tom Hardy, alone in a car, talking on the phone for just under and hour and a half. It’s not the most obviously filmic material ever, but Hardy is a nuanced performer when he wants to be and here he’s really given material to shine. To say that this could as easily be a radio or stage play is to miss the point. The gentle rhythms of the editing and the measured voice of Hardy are counterpointed by his facial expressions. The intimacy of Hardy’s performance could never be realised in another medium and the way it’s leveraged means time passes swiftly. For while you’re just as trapped as Locke even if you’re not as desperate to escape the mire.

The plot is simple, interesting, and better left unspoiled. The impressively slick cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos manages to find enough ways of showing a man driving car to prevent visual boredom. Indeed for the simplicity of its subject matter Locke is a surprisingly visual film. Small but nicely handled details cue you to story points. Ultimately, however, this is a showcase for Hardy to remind us of how great an actor he can be. And it’s a highly inventive directorial debut for Stephen Knight, writer of Eastern Promises.and Dirty Pretty Things.

 

 

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