Locke (2014)

Very Cool!!!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a decent film, it's definitely all about the acting and emotions considering it takes place inside a car the entire time. It's worth a watch, especially if you like Tom Hardy.

All of the other reviews here cover the reasons to praise this film - the writing, the acting, the visual creativity. How do you make a story compelling for 90 minutes when it's one man alone in a car? You do it like this - plausible drama that builds in an organic way, with just enough backstory and circumstance to make your main character likable despite the mess he's gotten into. Unfortunately, that plausibility grinds to a screeching halt in the last few minutes of the film. The main and unforgivable mishap (SPOILER ALERT) is that Locke's mistress goes from debating whether or not to let the doctors perform surgery on her, to having the Cesarean, to then calling Locke with a crying baby in the background all in less than fifteen minutes. WHAT?? Maybe there have been massive advancements in medicine since one of my children was born this way, but a tooth-pulling takes longer, for Pete's sake. And maybe I'm being too critical, but everything else rang true and felt carefully constructed until this last bit, this awful punt.

Ivan Locke is a construction manager who abandons a major project (and his family) to be there for a woman at the birth of his illegitimate child from an affair. They portrayed the main character as a responsible "good guy" who had made a mistake and was trying to do his best to make things right. His stubborn insistence on doing the "right" thing cost him his job, and likely his family. Tom Hardy is the only actor on screen, the entire movie taking place in his car, the dialogue being real-time phone conversations about construction and sportsball and family wreckin' stuff. Neither the writing nor the acting was good enough to support the concept. Why didn't he tell his wife earlier? Why didn't he prioritize the wife and two children he already had while figuring out how to be a father to this new baby? His car trip was only a few hours, why didn't he just drive back to work the next day? Why was he ironing out major details of the biggest job of his career the night before? I worked as a construction manager for many years, and the dialogue about his job sounds absolutely idiotic. I suppose it might slide by anyone who hasn't spent time in construction, but it was a distraction for me and also indicative of the other flaws in the writing. The moral ambiguity and question as to whether he was a responsible person or absolute moron is what made the film interesting and kept me watching to the end, but I would really like those two hours of my life back now. Here's the real spoiler: Ivan Locke is a douche. The kind of douche who ignores the feelings of everyone around him because he insists he knows what's right. The kind of self-obsessed douche who talks on his phone while driving on the freeway because he believes everything is all about him. kept hoping there'd be a surprise ending where he was pouring his heart out to his wife making some real progress towards personal growth and BAM! Killed by an 18 wheeler because he should've been driving instead of talking on the phone. That would've been an interesting twist but alas, no. The final disappointment this film had to offer me wastjat in the end he just goes on being a douche.

Who would have thought I could watch Tom Hardy take phone calls for 70 minutes? If I had been told that's what I would be doing, I wouldn't have watched, but it was riveting! Maybe because every woman I've ever known acted like these women in the movie. Maybe it was his cool demeanor that I could have never had under these stresses. Anyway, it was just fascinating to watch him handle it without yelling. My favorite part was the delivery of the last line of the movie. Can't tell you or they'll make me say this is a spoiler...