Review of Locke (2014) by Justin J — 15 Aug 2014

If you want my opinion, Locke is a hero. See the film for yourself and make up your own mind. The answer isn't concrete, but it's still the answer.

I don't normally give background information, but to understand the plot and the rest of this review, the film is about one guy driving in a car (for the whole movie) while making phone calls after he changes his family/work related plans to be with a woman during labor that he accidentally impregnated.

The tension builds only from what has happened in the past, from facts that Locke cannot change about his mistakes, facts about what kind of person he's been, and what he's gotten himself into. He does not have the power to change those facts. What will come of his future is therefore not entirely in his control, and what he cannot control at times seems like enough to throw him into a fit of madness and run his vehicle off the road. We wonder at every second how he will deal with this, what he will do if he loses just a bit more control. But at the very beginning of the film, it seems that he knows what he's getting into, that he has already set his path, and that whatever the consequences may be, they will reveal themselves, and so long as he maintains this course there is, at once, nothing he can control. His only means of dealing with his problems is through people he has previously connected with, and their will of whether or not they listen to him isn't dependent on his will. This is the life we wake up to every day. This is the life that reveals itself over the course of the film, one that ended before the day started, but also one that begins when the day ends.

This is a special film. It's one that invites contemplation and reflection on our own lives. If we were to put ourselves in that driver's seat as Locke has, move forward and in one direction without turning around, where would we end up? What aspects of our lives are irreversible? What if we stopped hiding behind our mistakes, what would we lose, and who would we be thereafter? That's what Locke is about. It's a must see.