There are some actors who command the screen simply by virtue of their presence. Without uttering a line, they attract the audience’s attention and hold it for as long as they’re on screen. I’m growing convinced that Tom Hardy is one such actor, and he’ll have the opportunity to prove it with Locke, which stars a multitude of performers but visually, only features Hardy alone in a car.
The film follows Ivan Locke (Hardy), a regular man trying to keep his life together during a single drive. He calls up various people in his life, but the audience will only hear their voices. It is Hardy who commands the screen throughout and it shows great faith from writer/director Steven Knight to feature him and only him for the entire 90 minute runtime.
While the first trailer for Locke gives nothing away in terms of plot, it does make the film look positively intriguing. From the snippets of conversation we overhear, it seems that Locke is having difficulty in his relationships and that he needs to fix something and will try to do it over the course of the film. The trailer creates an hallucinatory, noirish tone, implying that part of the mystery of the film will simply be to figure out what Locke is up to.
Locke played at the Venice Film Festival to great acclaim, and it’s no wonder. Steven Knight is also the writer behind Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things, while Hardy has proven himself one of the most interesting and versatile actors in recent memory. Take a mere glance at his filmography, which includes such diverse films as Bronson, The Dark Knight Rises, and Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy, and you’ll understand why Knight claims Tom Hardy as “the best actor we’ve got.”
You can check out the first trailer for Locke below and let us know what you think in the comments. Would you go for a ride with Tom Hardy?
Locke hits theatres April 25 and co-stars Andrew Scott, Olivia Colman and Ruth Wilson.