When I read the description of the movie in which one actor drives a car and talks on the phone I got some doubts. While theaters have accustomed us to monodramas and told us to treat them completely normally, in the cinema this type of experimentation often turns out to be a failure. After all, something should happen on the screen, not just a guy, a car and a phone connected by blue tooth. It's good that I choose films based on the cast (and persuasion of friends). Thanks to far-reaching sympathy for Tom Hardy and his soft voice, I watched one of the most interesting and original films for years. Fim is from 2014 but for those who, like me, did not attract to the cinema (very little promotion) or somewhere you omit it, I decided to write a non-spoiler review. Which is difficult because the first spoiler in this movie appears relatively quickly. But in general I did everything to help you as little as possible.
Ivan Locke is driving a car. The route will take him an hour and a half if there are no traffic jams. Ivan should not be in the car, because he should supervise the work. Especially since the best possible specialist is needed at the construction site in the morning. Ivan is a decent foreman, a specialist who talks about pouring foundations like some people will never learn to talk about poetry. In other words - a man you can always rely on. But tonight Ivan will fail, he will not be at work. He will also not come home to the match despite the fact that his wife bought beer, baked sausages and put on a shirt of his favorite team. Ivan is in the car because he decided to behave properly. Choose a solution that is harder to compare. Tell everyone the truth, don't run away, hide, be good.
Yes, Ivan Locke is an absolutely amazing hero. We rarely see such on the screen. Usually, we admire the professionals. But Locke is a builder. He loves what he does and has never failed for ten years. When he talks about erecting buildings, he always emphasizes that it's his skyscrapers, that he is pulling out a piece of the sky. He can even manage a slightly drunk employee over the phone. He will take care of everything, he will not let the cement mix contain at least one dose of another mix - because then everything may collapse. So he will take care of the construction at the moment when his own life, built, however, on slightly too shaky foundations begins to falter. At the same time, a huge nod to the scriptwriters of the film - it is very rare to create a situation in which the hero really has no way out. Usually the dramas are pulled on, or we can quickly find another solution for our hero. But not in Locke - here we are dealing with a real tragic conflict - the hero can choose between decent behavior and destruction of his life, and behavior like a pig and living with the knowledge that he has become to some extent a copy of his own hated father. And looking at the hero's actions we are not able to say if he could do otherwise. In fact, we feel the admiration that he decided on the most difficult of all roads - he took responsibility for his actions.
Locke wouldn't be without Tom Hardy. Apart from a few minutes of this 89-minute film, the camera constantly shows us his face. Although we hear the voices of other actors (excellent Adrew Scott, Olivia Coleman or Ruth Wilson, about whom I could swear that I saw them on the TV screen), we really only have Tom on the screen. I know Tom Hardy is a good actor. I think everyone knows it. This is a rare case of an actor who looks like a boxer, speaks like a poet and plays like from the music note. Ductile, with a good instinct for choosing roles, could not be pigeonholed. For a long time, he has almost no mishaps and although he managed to catch a wave of love for British actors, his photos did not settle the Internet. In fact, I am a bit surprised because Hardy - as I mentioned earlier - is perfect for becoming the subject of adoring fans - handsome, good actor with the right accent and international career. Well clearly the internet is picky. Hardy plays so that it is very easy for us to believe in such a hero (although he is not a typical hero), moreover - he does not play such a typical decent worker from a production with a heavy fate of the working class. It is difficult to play someone who we would believe that he is an excellent professional, efficient manager, good father and husband - not seeing him anywhere else but in the front seat of the car. But Hardy perfectly using the voice, facial expressions and small gestures plays all these roles without moving from the spot.
Locke is a movie that probably could also be a radio play (although we would lose part of Hardy’s excellent game). Most of the action takes place in the imagination of the viewer, who imagines the next callers, their faces, places where they answer the phone, the actions they take. When I think about the movie, it seems to me that I watched a movie that took place in at least three or four spaces, and not just in a small car interior. Like many viewers and creators, I sometimes forget how amazing the imagination is and how easy it is to build a whole narrative, even if it doesn't show us something on the screen. Therefore, when someone asks me if a movie that happens in a car is not boring, I have to deny it vigorously. Because the film really happens in many different places - regardless of what we see on the screen. I must say that for most of the movie I was wondering how it was shot. Because the creators not only lock the hero in the car but show the viewer his entire journey. So we see increasing traffic jams when the hero reaches London, renovation works on the highway, further police interventions. Looking at what is happening outside the hero's window, one can conclude that the creators actually put Hardy in the car and the only intervention they made was to put cameras in the right places. Unfortunately, Imdb does not provide any information about production.
It would seem that the cinema in such a minimalist edition narrows the perspective. A man in a car talking to people about the most important matters in his life - family and work (or in other order). The story of many, although this is actually different how the hero behaves. But just focusing on such a single story, the author of the film makes us think about it. What dramas take place in those dozens of cars that run along the highway. Not only Ivan Locke has the most important conversation in his life. The game for the future may not take place in every gliding car but in each of them there is a man whose fate can quite easily change. Both private and professional. But when it seems that the film will be only a story about the fragility of our foundations and about the features that are slowly emerging on the skyscrapers of our existence, the ending appears. The ending naturally resulting from the plot of the film and yet telling you to stop for a moment and leave with the conviction that who knows, maybe it will not be as bad as it seems. I confess that I expected many endings of this film, but not so. I'm well aware that writing about it will not tell you anything about the film. You can definitely feel (what may surprise) a breath of freshness - this is not one of the dozens of productions that can be watched in bulk and can not remember then what exactly was their title - it is different, interesting and in some way unusual. To such an extraordinary degree that I had no thought in my mind for a long time that I had seen something like this before in a slightly different edition. And let's be honest, this thought appears in my head more often than often. And that's why I recommend that you spend these 89 minutes with Ivan Locke. Your life will not change as drastically as his at this time, but maybe you will learn something about yourself. And about cement.
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