Locke (2014)
- Apr 17, 2014
- 1 min read
Directed by: Steven Knight
Starring: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Tom Holland, Danny Webb
Premièred in 2013 at the Venice Film Festival, released in the UK on April 18th 2014.
One evening Locke (Hardy) gets into his car phoning his wife, his boss, and others on the journey to London after a life-changing phone call and a self-made promise force his hand to implode his life.
Incorrectly described as a ‘nail biting thriller’ in some reviews, Locke is a compelling and intriguing dramatic piece, easily drawing you in to the predicament of the titular character. The entire story takes place within a single location, in Locke's car as he drives from Birmingham to London. Where other directors would have cut away to elsewhere to display the impact of the conversations, Knight keeps us in the car the entire time. We feel the claustrophobia and discomfort of the situation as we can't leave, having no choice but to keep going on the road and listen.
There's an argument to be made that this would have worked equally as well as a radio play. A single actor with nothing but voices over the car's bluetooth would lend itself well to the format, but then you'd lose the very human performance Hardy gives. What would sit as dead air in a radio drama allows for true-to-life discomfort to build and flesh the character in what would normally be overstuffed with music and images in film.
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