(UK/USA, 86 min.)
Written and directed by Steven Knight
Starring: Tom Hardy
Locke features a
concept that works much better with Robert Redford on a boat. If All is Lost plays like a bravura solo
act in which a seasoned sailor proves himself a master of the high seas, then Locke is a disappointingly gimmicky ruse
in which an emerging star struggles to exceed the star vehicle. Tom Hardy fires
on all cylinders as he spends eighty-odd minutes behind the wheel of a car in Locke, but this one man show chugs to
the finish line. Locke’s solo act runs
on fumes despite the driver’s best efforts.
Locke, written and directed by Steven Knight (screenwriter of Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises, never really shakes the feeling of being a contained gimmick as it follows Tom Hardy’s contractor Ivan Locke along the motorway to London. Locke offers the latest in a string of stunt performances that form the core of a film’s central energy, and it might suffer from the fact that watching Tom Hardy drive a car isn’t nearly as interesting as watching Robert Redford sink silently in a boat or Sandra Bullock drift breathlessly through space. It’s a good performance for sure, although it’s hard to forget that one is simply watching Tom Hardy acting since Locke always plays like a performance piece.
Hardy gives a compelling performance from behind the wheel
and it is commendable how an actor can make a film so engaging despite doing
little more than having conversations with unseen speakers. He barely moves
from the upright position and he mostly keeps his hands at ten and two except
to blow his nose and rub his hands all over his face. Locke features a few too many tics that aim for realism, such as
Hardy’s constant face touching and beard rubbing, but they feel strained as the
film tries to hold the audience’s attention. (Locke might have made a great short.) Hardy is frequently dynamite,
though, in spite of Ivan’s completely unplaceable accent and mechanical tics as
he spirals out of control, yet keeps his composure cool and his eyes on the
road.
Call after call brings a little chaos into the vehicle that
careens towards London. Calls with a cranky supervisor (Ben Daniels) put Locke’s
career on the line as he drives away from an important concrete-pouring job
that he has spent years planning. More calls to his funny underling (Andrew
Smart) toil to preserve the work that is clearly Locke’s greatest source of
pride. Calls with home are equally testy with his wife (Ruth Wilson) utter
irate, understandably so, that Ivan is abandoning a night with the family to
attend the delivery of a child that resulted from a one-night stand with Bethan
(Olivia Colman), who chimes in on the car phone from time to time with calls of
needy desperation. It’s funny how the car phone’s polite interjections of “You
have a call waiting,” drive Locke further into desperation, and Locke offers an intriguing musing on
contemporary communication as a man can excel in his work, yet see his whole
life crumble, from behind a mobile telephone. Locke loses everything in a
single car ride, and Knight’s script contrasts the work/life conflict as this
fallible man does his best to preserve the foundation he’s laid for his
success.
Locke, however, is
an act of telling in a visual medium better suited to showing. The taut editing
by Justine Wright is the only cinematic element in Locke as her quick cuts give the film enough urgent energy to keep
one alert. The vocal performances, especially Colman’s, are also frequently
compelling, but Locke could easily be
a radio play since the entirety of its conflict plays out in conversations. The
film feels especially strained as Locke grapples with his inner demons and
argues with his imaginary father by looking in the rear view mirror and griping
aloud about all the faults his father had that he refuses to pass on to his
sons and his future child with Bethan. Knight vocalizes all of Locke’s depth
and interiority, which grows a bit tiresome if one considers that JC Chandor
and Robert Redford pull off a similar feat using only Redford’s weathered face
and the word “fuck.” Not all is lost in Locke,
but it’s a Sunday drive as far as character-driven performance pieces go. It puts Hardy in the driver seat and that's about it.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Locke screens in
Ottawa at The ByTowne until July 10
