Locke (2014) - Steven Knight

Ivan Locke is an extremely successful construction manager whose widely regarded as the best in the business.  He is a dedicated family man, with two sons and a loving wife, but on the eve of the biggest challenge of his entire career, Ivan receives a phone call that changes everything.  This phone call sets in motion a series of events that systematically threaten to tear away everything in Ivan's life that he cares about.  Steven Knight's Locke is an expertly crafted character study featuring a tour de force performance by Tom Hardy.  Taking place solely in one location, Ivan's car, where he communicates with the other characters by phone, Locke is a contained experience that is impressively gripping, emotionally affecting and morally complex.  Tom Hardy's performance has got to be the first thing one talks about when seeing Locke.  Hardy has been one of my favorite contemporary actors for some time now and with Locke he delivers a performance right up there with his performance in Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson.  Hardy is special, capable of capturing the tough, stern, dedicated business man whose reached the top of his field, while also exuding vulnerability as the world around him crumbles, leaving the viewer devastated.  Steven Knight's direction is solid as well, with a frantic-sense of direction that never goes overboard in approach, helping keep the film captivating from start to finish.  Locke is a hard film to talk about without going into spoilers but I will say that my only problem with the film lies in a few sequences involving Ivan's relationship with his father which feels far too "on the nose", when it could have been conducted in a much more subtle way.  Steven Knight's Locke is an impressive character study with a fantastic performance, reminding us how great of an actor Tom Hardy is.

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