Locke

Locke (2013)

91% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 192 reviews)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Steven Knight

Starring: Tom Hardy, the voices of various actors

From: IM Global/Shoebox Films

I finally watched a more modern movie today, and I was reminded why I tend to watch older movies, although I wonder why I find so many movies from the past few years to be overrated, or why I have such different tastes from a common person. The Letterboxd review is below and I'll return tomorrow night.

After having watched some old movies for the past few weeks I decided to finally get more modern and watch something that has gotten near-unanimous praise for months now. I was definitely interested in a story that is set only in a BMW X5 SUV as you follow a man (Ivan Locke, played greatly with a Welsh accent by Tom Hardy) drive from the construction job he's a foreman at to another city, and the phone calls that result from the decision... and other decisions he's made. It's a huge and important job he's leaving, so there are serious ramifications. After all, Hitchcock has proven more than once that an entire movie set in a single location can be good. Unfortunately, in this case...

I won't spoil anything as I am not that kind of guy. While I was interested in the story-as I never had it spoiled, thankfully-and it started off well, eventually it felt like it was spinning its wheels at times, as if they were filling time to make it feature length. Not to mention things seemed ridiculous or contrived at times. Then, there's most of the people he called; they were just dumb and annoying as hell more often than not. It may just be me but that's what I thought. Locke is a flawed character for sure and that's fine; the film is all about dealing with the consequences of his actions and it's interesting. But, I had issues with how things played off. Then, there's the ending; I'll just be vague and say it left me quite unsatisfied.

I didn't hate the movie by any means. Like I said Hardy did a swell job with his role. I just feel disappointed that I don't love it like others do. I just had too many problems with it, like cracks in the concrete of the building that this motion picture was.