the m0vie blog

With 2014 coming to a close, we’re counting down our top twelve films of the year. Check back daily for the latest featured film.

On paper, Locke seems like an incredibly indulgent high-concept. Tom Hardy drives a car for an hour-and-a-half? He is the only actor who actually appears in the film? He spends most of the runtime on his mobile phone, rather than listening to his own preselected mix tape? Writer and director Steven Knight could at least throw in a sense of imminent danger. After all, Phone Booth had police cars and a sniper; Cellular had Chris Evans running around a lot; Grand Piano had… well, a grand piano.

However, Locke works beautifully. There are a lot of different reasons for the film’s success, but Steven Knight deserves a great deal of the credit as writer and director. The highest stakes in Locke are those furthest from the protagonist; the birth he is racing towards, the family he is racing away from, the construction job he has abandoned. We never leave the car. We experience those moments of tension and dread and anxiety and uncertainty right along with Ivan Locke. There is nothing to see beyond the lights of the car on the road, nothing beyond the disconnected voices on the other end of the line.

It takes a very singular vision to get a story like that to screen. Knight has enjoyed a long career as a writer for the screen. Most recently, Knight wrote Peaky Blinders for the BBC, a stylish crime drama set in twenties Birmingham starring Cillian Murphy. His theatrical scripts are of a similarly high caliber, including Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises. However, Locke marks only the director’s second time behind the camera for a theatrical release. The result is staggeringly confident.

Locke is a movie that could easily have collapsed in on itself. Avoiding that sort of stumble would have been enough to mark it as a success. However, Locke not only avoids the many potential problems with the premise, but also surpasses all expectations. It is hard to decide whether the result is a delightfully thrilling drama or a terrifically dramatic thriller, but – regardless of classification – it is a damn fine piece of cinema.

Tom Hardy has quickly established himself as one of the most interesting and talented actors of his generation. The failure to launch after Star Trek: Nemesis is just a faded memory, replaced with scene-stealing turns in a variety of films. Hardy is an actor who demonstrates remarkable versatility and fantastic range – there is no role (and, indeed, no project) too big or too small for the actor. One need only look his two performances in Steven Knight’s 2014 projects to get a sense of his talent. His quirky supporting role in Peaky Blinders is markedly distinct his central role in Locke.

Playing Ivan Locke, Hardy brings an incredible vulnerability to the role. The audience is effectively locked in a confined space with Locke for an hour-and-a-half, turning the car into something of a confessional. Hardy wisely avoid overplaying it, offering Ivan Locke as a flawed man who is trying to do the right thing at a moment where the right thing is very hard to identify. His soft-spoken Welsh accent masks a steely determination; Ivan might not have a lot of influence on the world around him, but he is determined to do what he can.

The stakes in Locke are relatively low-key. Although the construction subplot does offer a more public and visible platform for Ivan Locke’s potential failings, the movie balances that professional crisis with a more deeply personal one. Locke is the story of a man who made a terrible mistake, and who is smart enough to realise that it cannot be fixed or reversed. A construction worker by trade, Locke seems to understand that some structural flaws cannot be easily repaired; instead, they can only be accounted for. You can only do the right thing going forward, even if that means tearing down what you’ve already built.

The world outside Ivan Locke consists of voices on the telephone. Steven Knight quite cleverly sticks to the movie’s central premise; he never leaves the car. We are spared any intercutting, any relief from the ever-mounting tension inside that car with Ivan. Those voices are brought to life by a wealth of British talent, including Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott. The actors make the most of their appearances, and it surprising how much character these small appearances allow the audience to read into the characters caught in orbit of Ivan Locke.

Locke is a movie that could very easily fall apart under the weight of its central concept. Instead, it uses that central concept as a gateway to a fascinating and powerful character study – underscored by a solid script, great direction and a host of terrific performances.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: best of 2014, ivan locke, locke, steven knight, tom hardy |