This is a single character movie. It is a drama with one character burdened with showing a range of emotion as they try to keep an audience engaged for 75 to 90 minutes.
It is tough to do. Especially without too much action, melodrama or suspense.
'Locke' is one such film that manages to weave its narrative around the life of a person (by the name of Ivan Locke), who is a middle class construction manager about to leave work.
The movie begins with the protagonist getting out of his work boots caked with concrete and heading out for the drive home. As he is waiting at a stop light he makes a conscious decision to make a turn away from home and head into a new direction that becomes the narrative of the 80 minutes that follow.
Using modern car phone technology to keep the character in conversation with the people on the other end of the line the story outlines the choices we make as humans and how sometimes these choices come back to either haunt us or redeem us.
Ivan Locke is dealing with one such decision from his recent past - involving impregnation of a woman he has met under unusual circumstances, who is now about to deliver his child, to where he now heads; and therefore having to be away from one of his most important jobs at the work site and also to deal with disclosing this information to his wife and family who are expecting him home for dinner.
As these three stories are handled over conversations on the car phone, Locke stays calm and practical about each without losing his temper or getting distraught. Work involving a concrete foundation pour for a building is used as a metaphor for beginning any new activty with a strong base to ensure long term survival.
A different and watchable story although the only character in the film is not an acclaimed actor.
It is tough to do. Especially without too much action, melodrama or suspense.
'Locke' is one such film that manages to weave its narrative around the life of a person (by the name of Ivan Locke), who is a middle class construction manager about to leave work.
The movie begins with the protagonist getting out of his work boots caked with concrete and heading out for the drive home. As he is waiting at a stop light he makes a conscious decision to make a turn away from home and head into a new direction that becomes the narrative of the 80 minutes that follow.
Using modern car phone technology to keep the character in conversation with the people on the other end of the line the story outlines the choices we make as humans and how sometimes these choices come back to either haunt us or redeem us.
Ivan Locke is dealing with one such decision from his recent past - involving impregnation of a woman he has met under unusual circumstances, who is now about to deliver his child, to where he now heads; and therefore having to be away from one of his most important jobs at the work site and also to deal with disclosing this information to his wife and family who are expecting him home for dinner.
As these three stories are handled over conversations on the car phone, Locke stays calm and practical about each without losing his temper or getting distraught. Work involving a concrete foundation pour for a building is used as a metaphor for beginning any new activty with a strong base to ensure long term survival.
A different and watchable story although the only character in the film is not an acclaimed actor.
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