Culture

I know what you are thinking. If the film is just Tom Hardy’s face as he drives and talks on hands-free, how interesting could it be? The answer: RIVETING. And, no, that’s not sarcasm.

We follow Ivan Locke on a literal journey to a hospital one night, but more importantly on a figurative one from his old life towards an uncertain promise of a new one. On the eve of the biggest contract of his professional engineering career, a woman he can’t stand (but slept with) calls to tell him she is having his baby, it’s so premature it may die, and she needs him to be there, right now.

So, Locke goes, but not alone. His wife is on the end of his phone, falling apart as he is forced to confess his adulterous crime, and his children beg him to come home while he is shamefully compelled to drive in the opposite direction, maybe never allowed to come home again. His boss is breathing fire down the wire at losing tomorrow’s $100,000,000 contract, and Locke must explain over the phone to the drunken Irish primate he left in charge how to finish the job. The expectant mother needs birthing advice and, to cap it all, the ghost of his dead-beat father is in the back seat, taunting and defying Locke at every mile to be a better parent for this unwanted impending infant than he was. Brother, you got problems!

Not that the tragedy and comedy of putting out a dozen fires over the phone wasn’t great, but what I loved most was the allegory of Locke’s journey. Like him, we are all barrelling down a one-way highway, compelled forwards by the march of time and unable to undo the things behind us. We can only apologise and keep on driving towards the new-born, hoping that we are doing enough.

Tom Hardy’s performance is simply astounding, and we wait anxiously for him to deliver every line. The director knows exactly how to make one character in a car into a captivating spectacle from start to finish. I highly recommend this film journey!

Locke - screening at Rialto Cinemas:
8pm Saturday 2 August & 1:45pm Monday 4 August