One man and his car. The man's name is Ivan Locke and his life is going to change completely during an hour and a half trip in his car while he talks on the phone via bluetooth with several people. Soon we discover the destiny of the road trip and throughout the film we understand and follow this man's issues.

Tom Hardy is an actor of excellence so even before I saw the film I already knew that he would give all of him as he always does. This film is not quite a monologue but is close to it since the only character we see is Hardy's. He always shows the right emotions no matter the difficulty of the role, and this was hard work. He has the capacity of keeping us interested and using the right tension and despair he is able to carry the film. We really feel connected with Ivan Locke. This guy needs more praise than he gets, so underrated and so great!

This film is definitely good but we do not see what it sells. For me it was a solid drama and not an exciting thriller. We watch a man trying to do the right thing. Against what is heart wants in his head he believes that he needs to assume a mistake not to be haunted by ghosts of the past that lead to the less happy memories of his childhood and adolescence. Another thing that bothered me in the story was the writer's (which is also the director of this film, Steve Knight) insistence on what I am going to call the "concrete talk". I understand that he wanted to prove that Ivan Locke is very passionate about his work but I felt that I do not needed so much of that.

The best thing about it (Tom Hardy's performance apart) is the fact that besides caring about the main and only character we see on screen it made me also cared about all of the other characters and we never see them! We feel their emotions and that was really cool.

Locke is definitely a different film with an interesting cinematography and editing. Doing a film only set in a car on a highway is not an easy thing to do and not even because of that we feel less power but the misleading plot might be your major disappointment.

I was very interested in the premise of this movie. After having seen (and appreciated) The Guilty some time ago, the idea of another one-man film intrigued me a lot. But at the end, I felt Locke was a bit of a letdown.

The cast was great. Tom Hardy gave a solid performance. It’s not an easy feat to act alone throughout the whole movie with very little to act against. But he did a great job, conveying all the emotions his character wet through. Even the rest of the cast did a good job, even if only their voices were heard.


The music was completely absent so I can’t really say much about it, except that in some occasion it would have been nice.

The cinematography was nice, but repetitive, at least for me. About half way through, I got tired of reflections, lights and mirrors. I get that the set was quite limited, but maybe something more could have been done.

The story was the real letdown for me. What started interesting and mysterious, turned out to be quite boring and dull about halfway through the movie. Then ending was also a delusion for me, without any real conclusion or answers.[spoiler] I get the moral angle the movie was going for, but it was not enough for ninety minutes of runtime. As a side note, the scenes where Locke “talks” to his deceased father got boring fast. The first was great, it almost felt like House of Cards, like he was talking directly to the viewer. But then it turned into Locke insulting his father every time[/spoiler].


In the end, Locke had much potential but squandered it with a quite frankly boring story. It’s not a total snooze fest only thanks to a solid performance from Hardy. I would recommend it only to fans of the actor, and even then with some reservations. If you are looking for a one man only movie, I’d instead suggest the previously mentioned The Guilty.
5/10

Kudos to Katrina.

[spoiler]I wish I had put my foot down and immediately left (exited the relationship) when I discovered that I was being cheated on. I originally intended to, but as with many experiences, my situation was different from hers; including the fact that I actually discovered the infidelity unexpectedly myself rather than it being willingly admitted to me.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]The details Ivan gave didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that the lady he slept with was lonely or depressed, or even if she’d literally been about to off herself. It didn’t matter that he had no romantic feelings towards her. It didn’t matter that he described her as unattractive to him. It didn’t matter that it was cold that night. It didn’t matter that there was wine involved (he chose to drink with this other person, alone.) It most certainly didn’t matter that it was only one single time in a double digit number of years that he slept with another woman that wasn’t his wife.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]For fuck’s sake, this isn’t the sort of thing anyone should expect marvel or commendation for. Let’s not give accolades to anyone for being less of a bad person than they could have been. All that mattered is that it did happen, even just the one single time.[/spoiler]

“The difference between once and never is the whole world.”

[spoiler]He didn’t win back any points for “doing the right thing” by going to be there for this other woman and their child. Because the fact still remained. He cheated.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]He was giving excuses, but he had none. He wasn’t drugged. He wasn’t raped. He didn’t drink so much that he temporarily forgot he had a wife that he’d committed to solely being with. It’s not like he bedded this other woman without a single thought ever going through his head about his significant other, and then later was like, “Whoops! That’s right, I’m in a monogamous relationship with my wife of 15 years. Silly me!” It was a conscious choice, through and through.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]He deserved every bit of everything falling apart on him. He sure as hell didn’t deserve a second chance with Katrina. No one who chooses to take that path does; not with the person they chose to cheat on. Once that’s fucked, it’s fucked. There’s no going back. Some people do work it out, but that’s some sort of miracle.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]If the other woman hadn’t gotten pregnant would he have ever revealed to his wife what he’d done? Or would he have just continued onward with a “what she doesn’t know can’t hurt her” attitude? That’s the kind of shit that haunts me to think about when it comes to risking yourself in relationships.[/spoiler]

Locke precariously drives down the road of crushing solitude. Concrete. A highly versatile construction material that harnesses strength and durability as aspects of its properties. Impact and fire resistant. A common element for brutalist architecture. And just like the eponymous construction foreman, all it takes is for one mistake. The most minuscule of errors, before an erected building collapses. Unable to withstand the misjudgement of its foundations. Locke, as he drives his tissue-littered BMW X5 from Birmingham to London, must confront unintentional accidents that have caused his mentality to inadvertently spiral out of control.

A one night stand with Colman as she gives birth to a miscalculated oversight. Consequently causing Locke to abruptly depart for the hospital, resulting in his job dismissal and a construction company spending millions more on a building that has yet to come to fruition. Confronting his own family, showcasing honesty in the most desperate of situations. An hour and a half drive (“as fast as the traffic will allow”). Thirty six phone calls. A life dissolving in the confinement’s of one location. He had everything. Security. Family. Shelter. Only for them to be removed by signalled communications in the luxury of his BMW.

Knight illustrates the power of simplicity. No flashy visualised distractions. No abrupt editing mechanics. No action. The thrills, tension and drama stem from a screenplay that has its extremities tested by consistently filming in real-time. Allowing the dialogue to be the only aspect at the forefront. We witness an individual deal with the stresses of life. Both professional and personal. Examining the moralities of a man who strives to differ from his irresponsible father. But his wife’s rebuttal is an opaque sentiment that challenges forgiveness. “The difference between never and once is the difference between good and bad”. An eternally resonant message that self-drives this car journey into the realms of virtuosity.

Knight’s purposeful choice of enhancing the claustrophobic environment complements the depiction of Locke’s world, as he knows it, swirling in on him. Reducing the boundaries of his breathing space. His stress and anxiety heightening with each phone call he receives. However, none of the above would’ve been as effective if it wasn’t for Hardy’s exceptionally tantalising performance. Far from a car crash, he manages to centralise the focus on him with the camera rarely moving away from his bloodshot eyes or fatigued face. His desperation and intrusive responses illustrates loneliness on a more empathetic wavelength.

Despite the act of adultery, you never view Locke as an antagonistic entity. He does his best to find “the next practical step” whilst retaining the thoughts of the recipients in his own head. It’s relatable, personally, on a level that cancels out the background noise. And that, is a powerful dramatic endeavour.

There are a few bumps on the motorway though. The various scenes where Locke talks to himself, as if he’s talking to his father, were somewhat cumbersome techniques in order to convey his opposing stance to his father that still haunts him. It’s not particularly subtle, and contrasts heavily with the dramatic phone calls. A desperate attempt to convey abandonment, which would’ve been alleviated by a simple phone chat instead. It’s not shot in one take, and so editor Wright embeds scenes of traffic and the bright luminescence of roads to segregate the narrative flow. These occur too frequently and conceives an occasional irregular pace. And the maternity nurse wasn’t particularly helpful by constantly spluttering “she’s afraid” whilst Locke clearly stated he was on his way. Give the man a break!

Despite these bumps, Locke is a smooth drive with dramatic heft and cinematic experimentalism. An irony of a construction worker having his life demolished in minutes. Testing an individual’s moralities through a variety of stress-inducing situations, culminating into an illustration on solidarity. Hardy confidently drives the plot to its desired destination, “speed limits” included.