LOCKE Starring: Tom Hardy Director: Steven Knight Category: IIB Talk about a star vehicle. Although it's a multicharacter drama, only its protagonist appears on screen in Steven Knight's Locke — and he spends all of this 85-minute film behind the wheel of the BMW he's driving down Britain's M1 motorway one incident-filled evening. Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy, above) is a construction professional, husband and father of two soccer-mad sons. On the eve of the concrete pour for the biggest project he's ever worked on and minutes before kick-off at a major soccer match he's due to watch at home with his family, he takes off in his car and heads to London, where a woman he slept with just once is in hospital about to give birth to their baby. On his journey, Ivan is sometimes left alone with his thoughts. More often, though, he's on the phone with various key people in his life, including his wife Katrina (Ruth Wilson), the expectant mother Bethan (Olivia Colman), his highly strung subordinate Donal (Andrew Scott) and strangers such as the nurse and doctor attending to Bethan. Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos shoots Hardy from assorted angles and shows enough of the surroundings to ensure a break from motorway monotony. Still, some may wonder whether Locke would have worked better as a radio show than a film. What's undeniable, though, is that the lead actor has been presented with a great chance to showcase his abilities, and he makes the most of it. With a superb portrayal of a man on an emotional roller coaster ride over the course of just one evening, Tom Hardy has made Locke worth watching as well as listening to. Locke opens on December 11
