Locke (2014)
Directed by Steven Knight
Ivan Locke has worked hard to craft a good life for himself. Tonight, that life will collapse around him. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul.
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The effect is that, as in My Dinner with Andre, we are staring at diffuse images but our brains are focused on Locke's conversations, perhaps trying to picture faces, or a football match, or a concrete pour.
Then again, some people might think of something even smaller and more obscure, like Louis Malle’s “My Dinner with Andre,” where the audience becomes enraptured with the fascinating dinner conversation.
Knight's film is one of those cinematic high-wire acts in the vein of "Buried" and "All is Lost" in which a director tries to burnish his storytelling cred by tying one hand behind his back and setting his whole film in one place.
It's the type of concept similar to what Rodrigo Cortes was going for in " Buried ."
Think Castaway with Tom Hanks (2000), Buried with Ryan Reynolds (2010), 127 Hours with James Franco (2010) and last year's Gravity (Sandra Bullock) and All is Lost (Robert Redford).
Dramatic stuff to be sure, though far removed from the sort of nail-biting thriller narrative audiences have come to expect from the man-in-a-confined-space sub-genre (think: Ryan Reynolds in Buried, Colin Farrell in Phone Booth, etc.).
Most man-in-a-can titles wear out their welcome quickly, including “ Phone Booth ,” about a man trapped in you know what, and “ Buried ,” about a far less lucky guy buried alive in a coffin; in “Gravity,” Sandra Bullock switched cans often enough that the movie never felt oppressive.
If you’ve ever seen a Mike Figgis movie (Leaving Las Vegas, One Night Stand, Timecode), you might understand the self-consciously conceptual, stressed masculinity that’s afoot here as mid-tier Figgis.
If you’ve ever seen a Mike Figgis movie (Leaving Las Vegas, One Night Stand, Timecode), you might understand the self-consciously conceptual, stressed masculinity that’s afoot here as mid-tier Figgis.
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If you’ve ever seen a Mike Figgis movie (Leaving Las Vegas, One Night Stand, Timecode), you might understand the self-consciously conceptual, stressed masculinity that’s afoot here as mid-tier Figgis.
Dramatic stuff to be sure, though far removed from the sort of nail-biting thriller narrative audiences have come to expect from the man-in-a-confined-space sub-genre (think: Ryan Reynolds in Buried, Colin Farrell in Phone Booth, etc.).
Most man-in-a-can titles wear out their welcome quickly, including “ Phone Booth ,” about a man trapped in you know what, and “ Buried ,” about a far less lucky guy buried alive in a coffin; in “Gravity,” Sandra Bullock switched cans often enough that the movie never felt oppressive.
Most people would think of something along the lines of “Phone Booth,” “Rear Window,” “or “12 Angry Men,” films that thrilled us with their suspenseful plots, making us sit on the edge of our seats in anticipation of what was going to happen next.
Has even that been taken from us? "Locke" belongs to a mini-trend of movies set in enclosed spaces (see "Phone Booth" with Colin Farrell and the coffin-set "Buried" with Ryan Reynolds), but more tellingly it continues the idea, seen in Cronenberg's " Cosmopolis ," that the car is no longer a refuge but an extension of the home and office, a mobile space that through wireless technology remains connected to the pressures of work and family.
Movies that take place in real time and/or confined spaces may sound like flimsy gimmicks — see: “Phone Booth,” “Buried” — but when they work, they can be supremely gripping.
"Phone Booth" and "Buried" are but two examples of thrillers with one character in an enclosed space but writer/director Steven Knight (writer "Dirty Pretty Things," "Eastern Promises"), his star Tom Hardy ("Warrior," "The Dark Knight Rises") and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos ("Thor") have created such a compelling study of a man hanging onto his morals from within a pressure cooker it's as if they'd invented the genre.
On the technical side, Dickon Hinchliffe's (2010's " Winter's Bone ") moody beat of a score and Haris Zambarloukos' (2014's " Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit ") shady lensing evoke a lonely feeling, but the latter slides into repetition with its limited assortment of shots.
Knight keeps things entirely focused on the car, with the camera mostly on the inside (there are couple of exterior shots, but they never break the mood), and “Thor” DoP Harris Zambarloukos’s Michael Mann-ish photography perfectly captures the sort of long nighttime drive of the soul that many of us could identify with (it’s also paired well with a very strong score by Dickon Hinchcliffe (“Winter’s Bone”).
Writer-director Knight, creates a drama that is entirely internal: this man is not forced to confront his fate, like Duel's Dennis Weaver, in the form of an external agency.
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It transpires in a manner characteristic of old school studio system movie pitches, like a moment from Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) or a chapter from the biography of drug-addled mogul Don Simpson.
A simple premise that’s unpacked with the patience and poise of a master, Locke is an effective cross between Gravity and Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten.