80 minutes of Tom Hardy in a car, by himself, talking to people on the phone and trying to hold his life together.
He plays Ivan Locke, a, structural engineer maybe. He's in charge of a project to construct a new building and they're pouring the foundation tomorrow morning, and he's taking off to London. Because a woman he randomly slept with after the completion of a previous project has called and told him she's having his baby, right now. And Ivan is, for various reasons, not the sort who will abandon a child he helped create, so off he goes.
But Locke is literally the only person we see the entire film, which I think is taking place in real time, basically. Cars drive past him on the road, occasionally you can read the words on the sides of trucks. We see construction or accident scenes, but the camera stays focused on Ivan as he tries to make this work, on the phone constantly. Talking to his boss, who is pissed. Talking to the lady, who is understandably stressed. Trying to talk his subordinate through all the stuff Ivan would normally do, while that guy slowly freaks. Trying to explain to his wife where he's going and why. And arguing with his dead father in the back seat.
(His dad's not actually there, it's an empty seat, but he speaks to it as if someone's there.)
Hardy plays Locke as an outwardly calm, ordered person. He's used to juggling a dozen different problems at once for his work, of handling problems and fixing them, being responsible. He figures this is no different. He's remarkably clear about what he's risking by making this trip, personally and professionally, but he's still doing it, because he thinks it's the right thing to do under the circumstances. I wonder if that's true. It seems like he's hurting more people than he's helping, but I don't know it can be that straightforward of a calculation.
3 comments:
It's a fascinating film, and directed by the same person who wrote Peaky Blinders and Taboo, both of which also feature Tom Hardy, and both of which couldn't be more different to this!
It's interesting because it's not really about anything in terms of plot, just one very flawed man trying to make the best decision he can, but it works. It's a great showcase of Hardy's acting skills too; I often think of him as a bit of a cartoon, sort of like a British Nicolas Cage, but here he shows that not only can he hold a film together by himself, but also that he's capable of more down-to-earth drama.
I didn't have any idea what it was going to be about going in, but it was pretty good, although I found myself wanting him to get to the hospital already at some point. Just watching him in the car gave me the same impatient feeling I get when I'm stuck driving.
I've never really thought of Hardy as a Nic Cage type, but if they hadn't had his name in the credits right at the start, I probably wouldn't have recognized him at all. I guess I tend to them of him as a more serious actor, who I keep seeing in random sci-fi/superhero stuff, but maybe that's not accurate.
He always seems a bit unhinged and off the wall in whatever he's in, which is why I get that Nic Cage feel. I'm catching up on Peaky Blinders and Hardy has just turned up as a Jewish baker/gangster and right from his first scene he's over the top. It's brilliant.
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