9/10

Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Hardy has become a star. Locke is the story of a car ride with concrete boss, Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy). He is on a trip that requires him to leave his job and family for one night because everything will inevitably change. Rather than telling you why Locke is taking this trip, i will instead try to review this film without giving anything away, because the surprises are the best thing about this movie. There is only one actor in the whole film who we see, so i will just review Hardy’s acting. He truly does give the best performance of his career and one of the best performances of 2014. Ivan is a man who has made some terrible decisions in his life, but he does what has to for them to be made right. He specifically says that he doesn’t care if people love him or hate him, he has to do what has to be done. Hardy plays him to an effect of the crowd feeling every kind of emotion for him. We love him, hate him, feel sorry for him and scream at him all in the short 85 minute run time. He is clearly carrying some extra baggage underneath the hood (metaphor not for real) and is haunted by figures of his past. As i said, the film is very short, but i think any longer and it would drag on. There is only so much you can do when your movie takes place in the same place for the whole span, but Director Steven Knight pushes the envelope even further than i ever expected. Hardy is certainly a one man wrecking crew in this film and shows that he is very comfortable with the pressure and camera being put squarely on him. There was something similar to this with 2010’s “Buried”. In that film, Ryan Reynolds was in a coffin underground for 90 minutes. I loved Buried very much, but i think Tom Hardy is even more talented in the fact that he doesn’t need to yell or panic for us to see the blood boiling underneath. For most of the film, he plays it very cool despite dealing with some decisions that will totally wreck any semblence of a life. The camera work doesn’t seem like much since it takes place in a car, but i think it gets very creative with the way it shoots Hardy from every angle. The camera shakes when we the viewer know the lid is about to blow from everything Locke goes through. There is also a very excellent shot of the backseat when Locke is talking to someone who doesn’t exist. The pieces are slowly coming off of this man’s sanity, but instead of it being just another piece to a man’s insanity in a film, Knight plays it to learn even more about the character’s backstory. I always love a movie that reveals a piece of the puzzle one bit at a time. When we first enter the car with Locke, we only know that he is a man who works at a concrete business. Other than that, we have to learn the rest by phone conversations that take place in the car. That is why Locke is absolutely brilliant. It doesn’t need millions of dollars to make a movie that leaves the viewer glued to the edge of their seat. What worries me about this film is that people won’t like it because it’s nothing other than phone call conversations in a car. To that i say you have to look deeper and reflect on how the pressure is built and built until you wonder what the outcome will be with this man. You have to appreciate how difficult it is to keep a movie exciting when there is only a one room shot. If people have a problem with the ending, i will say that i agree halfway. I think the ending is OK, but it is a little anti climatic. The answer we are given almost feels too easy in the first place to be accepted considering how much our protagonist has been through. Other than that, Locke is a masterpiece of a film that is already one of 2014’s best. It is a must see for anyone who appreciates great performances with films that don’t need the big budget or the crazy explosions.