Review of Locke (2014) by Jean-Philippe G — 14 Aug 2014

Some "one-character one-location" films (such as "All is Lost") are successful at keeping the audiences attention and becoming a tour de force achievement. "Locke" only achieved one of these.

"Locke" is about a man (Tom Hardy's Ivan Locke) who is driving 2 hours on steady traffic to witness the birth of his child from a woman he cheated on his wife with once. While on his journey, he has a list of things he must do while driving. One is that he must break the news of his lie and his past actions to his wife and another is to walk one of his colleagues through what was called the biggest concrete pour in England's history. So big that Locke was fired over the phone for his job "abandonment.".

Everything he does, there is no turning back.

This film only slightly kept my attention with the rich dialogue (which I had to have subtitles for (rich accents)) but overall, there was nothing that sparked or gave me any sort of satisfaction from watching it. Tom Hardy proved himself as a decent actor but it wasn't a tour-de-force performance.

The ending didn't help at all.

Locke, I give you a 60%.