LOCKE (Steven Knight, 2013)

“Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature: these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set on work, and guided.” – John Locke

One of the litmus tests of an actor’s skills is phone acting. I will credit you with a certain level of craft if you can make me believe there’s someone on the other end of the line. It’s how I knew Natalie Portman was going to get the Oscar for ‘Black Swan‘. Not that I liked it particularly but you have to admit she was pulling out all the stops, mewling “Mom, he picked me! Me!” and crying to beat the band. I’m sure the Academy thought is was a high point of phone acting that season, which was great because bad phone acting is the worst.

If we agree that it is challenging to professionally pretend one’s way through a phone call, then imagine doing nothing but that for the entire film. What an audacious idea! Yet this is exactly what writer-director Steven Knight pulls off in ‘Locke‘. Immediately, you recognize the need for an exceptional talent to keep the whole thing from collapsing under the weight of its own balls. Tom Hardy is that person. Supported by a solid story with a sufficient number of believable plot points and engaging dialogue (and in spite of what I saw as some misfires when it came to his “exchanges” with his dad), Mr. Hardy brings this troubled character to life.  Here’s a guy who has it all and within the length of his ninety minute drive has it all taken from him. And, without giving anything away, it’s because he fucked up.

The character Tom Hardy portrays is tragic, not pitiable, so that by the end of the film, with most of his life shattered and spinning away in front of our eyes, there are still elements of hope. If it had been played for pity, it would ring false, accompanied by some tacked-on, bullshit ray of sunshine ending. Here it comes off as noble suffering. So, incongruous as it sounds, I actually felt all-of-a-sudden uplifted by the way the story ended.

As a side note, I liked the fact that his character, Ivan Locke, was a foreman at a massive pour site in charge of all things concrete and that the whole film is on the highway, also made of the same stuff. When his wife (one of eleven other speaking roles) says “you always cared for the concrete more than me” you kinda believe it. You also start to think a little about how we inhabit the world he and folks like him have made for us. The world is hard but hearts are soft would be the mawkish point-of-view not too far off from what I’m suggesting.

Technically, the film delivers as hoped, consistently good and but rarely exceptional. Okay, maybe some of it was above the pale, like the fact that it was shot in under a week. As good as any cinematography can be – and Haris Zambarloukos has a sharp eye and obvious talent for compositions involving limited sets – you can only do so much with a car’s interior and exterior shots, punctuated by out-of-focus and impressionistic views of the British highway. Had the film gone on for another thirty minutes, or been less polished or original, it would have become annoying enough to take one out of the story. Here it works with a satisfying appropriateness. Along with the equally solid sound design and soundtrack, this is a well above average endeavor and probably the best vehicle for Tom Hardy since ‘Bronson‘.

Highly recommended, particularly for Mr. Hardy’s strong performance, and for those who don’t mind long car rides. Make sure you pee before the movie start