Locke – Steven Knight (2014)

Filmed every night in one week on location with one actor and a setting confined in a car, Locke – writer & director Steven Knight’s sophomore feature –resembles a work of theatre on the move, yet on the whole is convincingly cinematic and compelling in its minimalistic storytelling.

‘I’ve made my decision,’ says Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) to his confused, angry co-workers as he speeds down the highway. They simply cannot understand why Locke chooses to leave 10 hours before the opening of their biggest project. The film begins as the protagonist leaves his construction workplace – yet as he dials through a list of phone calls the audience should start to see a bigger picture formed before he steps inside his SUV. Through Locke’s dozens of phone calls over problems with concrete, football and the biggest mistake of his life thus far, the film slowly builds up the character’s back story and at the same time shakes his mentality. It is a story of ordinary life (played out in real-time, no less) that completely falls apart over a few dialogues. 

Developed just slightly longer than Locke’s overall time of filming, Steven Knight punctuates his screenplay with animated and gripping dialogues, even though most of the speakers are off-screen. The film uses not only frustrated cursings, nervous ranting or other extremes of emotional display, but equally employs the pauses, the abrupt hang-ups and sudden bursts of background noises to paint Locke’s life-changing evening. The superb voice-cast, which includes Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott and Ruth Wilson. . . make each of their words count, their expressions delivered with pace and precision, opening an incredible window for the audience to the world outside Locke’s car. 

At the centre of the action, Ivan Locke seems to be trapped in the mess he finds himself in. There is nothing for him but the road ahead, and the rear-view mirror which he delivers promises and persuasion for himself. 

After the larger-than-life roles of Bane, Bronson and Tommy Riordan, it is forgettable how great an actor Tom Hardy is, and though Ivan Locke has his own vengeance and loathing, the actor proves one of his talents is to make a solid, riveting performance out of just an ordinary man, out of ordinary situations of life. His character is calm and collected but also conflicted and anguished. Locke does not cave to the conventions of thriller in its one-person setting, but still hits the audience with its character’s outbursts, keeping them guessing at Ivan Locke’s attempt to mend his life. His tragedy seems to be the secret mistake that sets his drive in motion, yet as the film draws to a close it seems his biggest flaw is to believe in himself the ability to make everything right. Is it the right thing for him to do if it costs him everything he holds dear? As there is no way else to find out, and as life is a long road, the best thing for Ivan Locke is to just drive on. 

Locke, which can be exaggeratingly dramatic at some points, might not be the ideal film to function as a microcosm of life, but at the end it still delivers one of the most chilling insights into what is thought to be the ordinary days of ordinary humans. Mesmerizingly filmed and scored to a dreamy soundtrack, its ending shot of the lit highway leaves the audience wondering about the many stories which could spread out as each cars move by.

Originally posted on UEA Concrete 29/04/2014