Locke (2013)

Director: Steven Knight
Writer:    Steven Knight
Cast:       Tom Hardy

Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and a successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his careful cultivated existence. He drives of to handle the event which is his baby getting born to an ex-assitant of his and at the same time he is breaking the story to his wife and also managing the big fucking concrete pour that he was supposed to be in charge of the next day. As he says, at the beginning of his ride he had a wife, a home and a job and by the end he may lose all three.

If you go by the poster, it might give the impression that its a very intense film with all of it happening inside a car and no other actor apart from Tom Hardy is shown to us. It is certainly intense due to the situation he is in but it is also extremely funny. I sat through the whole thing with a smile on my face as an exasperated Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) deals with clusterfuck of a situation he has got himself into. He was supposed to be at home watching a football game with his family and going by the timing it must be a champions league encounter though player names that they discuss are fictional and so we cannot pin down the team they are rooting for. Locke, who grew up with his mother after their father abandoned them, want to do right to his baby even though he doesn't have any feelings towards its mother. He is also sincere to his wife and that is why he is informing her which he was anyways planning to do eventually but baby is coming out kind of two months early. He also wants the concrete job to go smoothly because of his love for the building and the fucking concrete which according to him is like blood. He just wants to be the complete opposite of his father who abandoned them and in between the phone calls he is ranting to his father whom he imagines to be in the back seat.

Steven Knight is known for writing David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. The filming was done inside the car which was driven around in an open top truck. It was done almost in real time and the only breaks that they took was for changing the camera's memory cards. The lights from traffic reflecting on the car makes it visually stunning and the soundtrack is also excellent. I even sat through the entire closing credits. IM global which is part owned by Reliance Entertainment was involved with this film.

Rating: 4.5/5