Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hardy, Nqabilezitha Mhlonga, Olivia Coleman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, Tom Holland, Bill Milner, Danny Webb, Alice Lowe, Silas Carson, Lee Ross, Kirsty Dillon.

American cinema may have invented the concept of the “Road Movie”, just as they did with the beat poetry that used the idea as metaphor to describe life but surely in the hands of one film, British cinema has shown exactly what can be done with the genre. The wide open spaces that run the width of the United States is can be argued is a poor substitute to the tediousness that is inflicted upon drivers in the U.K., the road in America takes you to the place you want to be, the road in Britain takes you where you need to be. For that prospect alone makes Locke one of the finest films dealing with solitude and everyday realism that you are likely to come across.

Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke completely dominates the film from start to finish; only punctuated by the calls he makes and receives on his hour and half journey between Birmingham and London, and gives a master class in technique and ability. As an audience member there is no reason to take your eyes off Mr. Hardy, there is no distraction to the trouble he has caused by one action, one moment in which he felt sympathy for somebody’s life, and yet knowing the trouble he is in, the mess that one action has delivered to him, somehow makes you feel sympathetic to his plight. It takes great conviction and belief given over by the actor to make the audience feel that emotion and yet Tom Hardy delivers in spades.

What can be harder to convey on screen is the disconnected voice, the sincerity in the action driving the only character that matters at that point. There are so few films in which this action has worked, possibly Phonebooth is a notable exception, so it becomes disconcerting to the viewer in where there senses should be aimed at. With great voice additions by Olivia Coleman as the woman having Locke’s child, the superb Andrew Scott as Donal, Locke’s right hand man in work, Ben Daniels as his boss Gareth and the sublime Ruth Wilson as his distraught wife Katrina, the aural deception that could hamper the film actually makes it more appealing. The voices echo the framing of the narrative between Locke and his deceased father even more poignantly, the thought of the mind that is so in control at all times slowly being splintered apart as each person calls for attention on his time.

The “Road Movie” may have been born in the minds of those frequenting meetings near the Hollywood sign but in the space of 90 minutes and the starkness of the British motorway it has come of age finally in Locke.

Ian D. Hall