Review #784: 'Locke' (2013)

Ever been stuck on a motorway at night, anxious to reach your destination, and with the sounds of "are we there yet?" running through your mind? Locke is a British drama by director/screenwriter Steven Knight, the man responsible for Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and Eastern Promises (2007) which takes place entirely in the miserable setting of the M1, and in fact never, with the exception of the opening minute or so, leaves it's protagonist's car. It could easily be dismissed as a narrative trick, a gimmick films often use to elevate it's dull story. But the claustrophobic and dreary setting serves a purpose, a portal into the mind of it's eponymous hero, charismatically performed by the magnetic Tom Hardy, in what is surely his best performance.

On the night before Europe's largest-ever concrete pour (outside of military and nuclear projects), construction foreman Ivan Locke (Hardy) throws his hi-vis and boots into his BMW, and sets off on what will turn out to be a traumatic journey from Birmingham to London. His boss, saved in Locke's phone as 'Bastard', is pissed at Locke for abandoning his post, and duly fires him. Determined not see his work fall apart, he stays in touch with Irish friend Donal (Andrew Scott), who carries out Locke's instructions. He also has news for his wife (Ruth Wilson), who is waiting with his children to watch an important football match. Armed with just Bluetooth and his beloved work binder, it will be a night that sees Locke's carefully constructed world fall apart.

It's hard to describe the plot without revealing too much. Locke's situation lacks originality and complexity, but the film holds your attention with the way the many phone calls he makes slowly begin to claw away at a man whose life, until now, has been a well-constructed success. Such a confined narrative structure demands a great performance, and Hardy, shedding the hard-man persona he developed in the likes of Bronson (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), delivers it with aplomb. With nowhere for the camera to go apart from the occasional glimpse of the road, Hardy holds the screen throughout. Some things don't quite work, such as Locke talking to his dead father (a moment that reeks of lazy exposition), but for a film about a man in a car talking on the phone to people we never see, it's often gripping stuff.


Directed by: Steven Knight
Starring: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie