Locke

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IMG_0006Experimental film can mean lots of different things. Usually it means chaos and disorientation as we are plunged into worlds we have never seen before, but experimental can merely mean doing something that has never really been done before. In this case, it is taking a simple idea and seeing if you can make it work. Can you make something interesting that seems too simple and too basic? Anything can work if you apply discipline and intelligence to a project. In this particular case, that is what happened. A simple premise has been executed brilliantly due to a number of factors. The first factor would be the actor Thomas Hardy.

Tom Hardy is Locke in the hyperbole of old movies but also because Tom Hardy is the single driving force of the movie Locke. It also helps that Tom Hardy is destined for super stardom. It hasn’t happened yet but those in the know, know it will. People don’t know Hardy from The Dark Knight Rises and I say don’t know because you only saw his face briefly and his voice was a maddening concoction. Hardy was Bane in that movie and his face was covered by a mechanical breathing device which obscured an effete, elitist and taunting voice. His incredible power as an actor is demonstrated time and time and time again in which he steals scene after scene in Inception, This Means War, Lawless, Warrior and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Upcoming roles for Hardy are as Elton John in Rocketman, Mad Max in Mad Max: Fury Road and the lead role in Kathryn Bigelow’s True American. He has the burning intensity of a British Brando and the quiet sensitivity and range to do just about anything including bulking up with muscles if necessary. I’m sure he could un-bulk or get fat if needed as well. He’s done it before. Tom Hardy’s performance in Locke is a tour-de-force.

Locke is about one man’s crisis presented in the most intimate and focused way. It is a film about suspense but it defies expectations on what is suspense. I don’t think it’s important you know the details of the crisis that Locke faces before going into this movie. It is compelling. He is an everyman fighting incredible odds but he is not racing to defuse a bomb to save mankind from destruction. His crisis is more like what anyone of us would face on the worst day of our lives. Locke is a man of decency and intelligence who must unravel problem after problem all from behind the wheel of a car driving through night traffic. His only contact with all the various people in his life for 90 minutes is his cell phone. We can become completely immersed in this man’s problems which shines a light on our own internal struggles and solitary attempts to defeat the adversaries in our own lives. We can identify with this man because he is so trying to be in control as he makes every effort to atone for one mistake in his life and to face the failures of those who came before him.

Tom Holland, Ben Daniels and Ruth Wilson are some of the actors voicing characters in Locke’s life. Locke is constantly jumping from call to call trying a little bit desperately but with utter determination to juggle various personalities that are all freaking out in some way because of a decision Locke has made. The is a line Locke repeats more than once. “I have made my decision.” It might be a decision that ends Locke’s life as he knows it but it is his decision. He has choices and his intelligence has searched through all those choices.

Locke is written and directed by Steven Knight tautly, economically and compellingly. There will be those who see a movie like this and complain. They will say it is claustrophobic and minimalistic. Those words don’t have to be bad things. This movie is all about focus. We are seeing a man’s entire life play out inside his head in 90 nail biting minutes. Each and every one of us should be able to identify with this man’s isolated and lonely struggle.

**** out of *****

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