Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Locke

This is topic Locke in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 12-28-2014, 02:42 AM:

I think Tom Hardy is a pretty good actor. He's likely to turn into a big action movie star. That latest Mad Max: Fury Road trailer really does look kick ass (despite some of the strangely pushed red colors on those explosions).

Having all that in my head, I picked up Locke as a free movie rental from Hastings. The store had a free movie rentals bonus for customers on Christmas Eve, which I think is generously wonderful and I hope they keep offering it. Customers could rent up to 10 movies for free and not have to return them until closing the day after Christmas.

Anyway, I was kind of expecting Locke to be some kind of action movie. Well, if you look at the cover and see Tom Hardy behind the wheel of his car, you've pretty much seen the whole damned movie. That's all it is. He's driving. And he's on his car phone. Yeah, he has a lot of very important, life changing things to discuss on the phone during his drive to London. But the movie never gets out of his damned car. It kind of felt like an off-Broadway play. 15 minutes into it I was wondering, "when the hell are they getting off this damned driving scene? When does he cast aside this hum-drum day job shit and meet up with the guys with all the guns?" Soon I realized the whole fucking movie was going to be spent in this car on this drive. Damn. Tom Hardy delivers a pretty good performance with what little material is given to him. But it's up to you on whether that's enough to float an entire movie.

Locke is an expert construction foreman, skilled in very high end concrete pours for projects like skyscrapers. He has an extremely, career altering important project on the line. He makes a phone call to inform others he has to bail out of that. Locke can't be there because he's on the road to London to be with an older woman whom he impregnated via a one night stand. She's giving birth to their child that night. He has to tell all his colleagues and also phone home to his wife and let them all know the bitter truth. He still tries to keep things together. Locke intends to talk other coworkers through on making sure the concrete pour goes successfully. He tries to find some kind of way to get some welcome back home after delivering some bitter truths.

If you really enjoy looking at anamorphic lens bokeh or are a road geek for English Motorway superhighways you might really enjoy watching this movie for the visuals. Outside of that, the movie could hit you as a frustrating or crushing bore.

Rating 2 out of 4 stars.