Locke (2013)

Last night, a bottle of wine and one of the greatest cinematic experiences I've ever taken time out to watch. Locke, a 90 minute film directed by Steven Knight (Redemption 2013, Dirty Pretty Things 2002), with cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos (Photography for Thor and Mamma Mia), starred the ever popular Tom Hardy (Bronson 2008, The Dark Knight Rises 2012) whose performance was faultless.

Who would have thought a film set entirely in a BMW would be so fascinating to watch. With Tom Hardy at the wheel, conducting phone calls throughout the entire piece, his character Ivan Locke, is trying his best to amend his wrongs and stabilise his rights. Ivan, a popular hardworking site manager, family man, decides to drive away from Birmingham to London to see the birth of his new child with a woman, who happens not to be his wife. His family are at home waiting for him to watch the game. His manager is panicking about one of the largest concrete jobs to ever happen in Europe, outside of military operations. Everyone has their own aims, and Ivan Locke wants to fulfill all of them.

However, I'm not writing this to look at the acting or the story in fact. It is more about the compelling cinematography which captured my eye. There are several camera angles in the car, and they rotate whilst the conversations are happening. Some focus on Hardy's emotive expressions, others watching him grip the steering wheel. At one moment we will be watching Hardy's eyes in the rear-view mirror, as he speaks to his father's ghost who is always behind him, then suddenly we're thrown into the sky, watching the seemingly endless roads of the M6 from above, as cars flash by like lightning. Sounds thrilling right? Well unless you watch it, you'll never know.

Personally, I found the piece to be unbelievably clever. Everyone has their mistakes and everyone has their decisions. This man decides to act upon decisions which will ruin his life, but he does it to be a better man than his father. However, what really struck me was this was one car on a road used everyday. By throwing us into "eagle view", we get to see there are hundreds of different people driving on these roads, who could be in similar situations, but we never think of it like that. We drive around, ignoring what's happening in other people's lives. Locke perfectly captures one mans journey, with the most interesting camera work I have seen in years. I really wish I watched this when it first came out because I personally feel it is underrated.

Steven Knight has created a piece which deserves to be recognised, not only for its story and phenomenal acting, but also because of the originality of the cinematography, which engrossed me from start to finish. I never wanted it to end.

Matt's Rating: 9 / 10