I was very interested in the premise of this movie. After having seen (and appreciated) The Guilty some time ago, the idea of another one-man film intrigued me a lot. But at the end, I felt Locke was a bit of a letdown.
The cast was great. Tom Hardy gave a solid performance. It’s not an easy feat to act alone throughout the whole movie with very little to act against. But he did a great job, conveying all the emotions his character wet through. Even the rest of the cast did a good job, even if only their voices were heard.
The music was completely absent so I can’t really say much about it, except that in some occasion it would have been nice.
The cinematography was nice, but repetitive, at least for me. About half way through, I got tired of reflections, lights and mirrors. I get that the set was quite limited, but maybe something more could have been done.
The story was the real letdown for me. What started interesting and mysterious, turned out to be quite boring and dull about halfway through the movie. Then ending was also a delusion for me, without any real conclusion or answers. I get the moral angle the movie was going for, but it was not enough for ninety minutes of runtime. As a side note, the scenes where Locke “talks” to his deceased father got boring fast. The first was great, it almost felt like House of Cards, like he was talking directly to the viewer. But then it turned into Locke insulting his father every time.
In the end, Locke had much potential but squandered it with a quite frankly boring story. It’s not a total snooze fest only thanks to a solid performance from Hardy. I would recommend it only to fans of the actor, and even then with some reservations. If you are looking for a one man only movie, I’d instead suggest the previously mentioned The Guilty. 4.5/10
Review by Enrico CamillieriBlockedParent2020-11-08T08:27:18Z— updated 2021-03-08T08:26:44Z
I was very interested in the premise of this movie. After having seen (and appreciated) The Guilty some time ago, the idea of another one-man film intrigued me a lot. But at the end, I felt Locke was a bit of a letdown.
The cast was great. Tom Hardy gave a solid performance. It’s not an easy feat to act alone throughout the whole movie with very little to act against. But he did a great job, conveying all the emotions his character wet through. Even the rest of the cast did a good job, even if only their voices were heard.
The music was completely absent so I can’t really say much about it, except that in some occasion it would have been nice.
The cinematography was nice, but repetitive, at least for me. About half way through, I got tired of reflections, lights and mirrors. I get that the set was quite limited, but maybe something more could have been done.
The story was the real letdown for me. What started interesting and mysterious, turned out to be quite boring and dull about halfway through the movie. Then ending was also a delusion for me, without any real conclusion or answers. I get the moral angle the movie was going for, but it was not enough for ninety minutes of runtime. As a side note, the scenes where Locke “talks” to his deceased father got boring fast. The first was great, it almost felt like House of Cards, like he was talking directly to the viewer. But then it turned into Locke insulting his father every time.
In the end, Locke had much potential but squandered it with a quite frankly boring story. It’s not a total snooze fest only thanks to a solid performance from Hardy. I would recommend it only to fans of the actor, and even then with some reservations. If you are looking for a one man only movie, I’d instead suggest the previously mentioned The Guilty.
4.5/10