Movies: Locke

The 2014 Tom Hardy film by Steven Knight

The Locke director creates a story with a man’s facial expressions at the center. It’s an experiment which largely succeeds on its terms. This is chiefly due to writing by the same artist, Steven Knight. As the title suggests, Knight builds his movie around a single character. The character of the character is the 2014 film’s focus.

What type of man is Ivan Locke? Why does he drive all night? Is he rationalistic or is there no rational alternative for this man other than risking marriage, career and meaningful relationships to drive himself to his destination? Audiences are invited to judge. But Locke is involving enough to motivate watching in under 90 minutes.

In the lead role, Tom Hardy is very good, as always. He’s convincing as a man who is obsessed with not becoming like his father—with being a man—with being a good man—with having standards and being his best. Locke is not perfect. Two gaping holes revolve around the women with whom he has become involved; his wife and a woman upon whom he takes pity leading to what the film regards as a major mistake.

Is it? One of Locke’s interesting aspects is the abruptness with which the plot turns, which is not entirely earned even on the film’s terms, and where Knight chooses to end the story. Just as you become convinced that Ivan Locke is willing to risk losing everything he’s worked his whole life to achieve, you can begin to see how he could make the most of emptiness anyway. This is an achievement.

Locke is a cinematic experiment. But it’s never a struggle to watch or feel invested in the main character whose romanticism and realism for living and building things—including the film’s highlight, his description of why he’s compelled to complete a skyscraper—provokes thought. All the audience has to judge by is the silence, pauses and tones of others’ voices in his car and the look on Ivan Locke’s face matched by the sound of his own voice. Sometimes, the voice corresponds; sometimes, it does not. By the end, whether and how one listens tells all.