Locke: Redeeming a Grave Mistake

Keywords: family, baby, mistake, construction, driving
Audience: 13+ (for some language and a subtle recollection about sex)


Warning: this review contains mild spoilers.

Yesterday I saw Locke on Blitz--it had to be Blitz because 21 didn't screen it. It's a movie I'd been looking forward to since watching its trailer before Wind Rises. I'd known it would be a 90-minute with Tom Hardy and he would be the only person seen on screen. I'd known he would have phone calls that would drive the story.

Well, I just hadn't imagined that those would be all I'd get in the movie. I'd expected a few dangerous maneuvers, even one simple danger, when he was driving. But there was none.

However, it's a good movie with a story-telling different from others. You might want to see it while it is still available on Blitz.

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So, Tom Hardy was Ivan Locke, a construction director at the peak of his career. When he started driving, he was nine hours away from a giant project: more than 200 trucks would come to the building site to pump concrete material for the building's foundation. His coworkers relied on him because his works had never been anything but perfect. Yet something called him to go, something more important than the biggest project of his career life.

"It's a family matter," said Locke to one of his coworker by phone.

It's not death. In fact, it's about life. He's going to have a baby and he had to see it. He decided to make sure that the baby know him and he was adamant to be responsible of the baby. The mother of the baby was not his wife.

Why did the woman go through with her unplanned pregnancy? She was a lonely woman, too old to hope for a baby. She thought it was her last chance for happiness.

Why was Locke risk everything to be there for his baby? He could come after his project was completed.

While the woman was a believable character, Locke was very deep. The foundation of his character was very solid. His decision rooted from his past experience in life. And the way he run things, both everyday and all the way in the journey to set things right, was the only way expected from such a person.

His family, his job, his soon-coming baby. Ivan was trying to make everything right, because something had been not right in his past.

His lovable sons, his bad-mouth but trusty coworkers, his way of talking (and cursing). Those are what will keep you engaged to this movie.

The pressure, the suspense, the tears...

All and all, Locke tells you a story about family and responsibility. It's about putting your best effort to redeem your mistake, however dire the consequence is.