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Jakarta Post

'€˜Locke'€™ alone against the world

Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a depressed man who tries to get a grip of his life while taking a long ride

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, May 4, 2014

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'€˜Locke'€™ alone against the world Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a depressed man who tries to get a grip of his life while taking a long ride. (AP/A24 Films) (AP/A24 Films)

Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a depressed man who tries to get a grip of his life while taking a long ride. (AP/A24 Films)

Steven Knight'€™s Locke reflects at least two issues faced by urbanites. One is that sometimes every bad thing imaginable happens all on one day as if the world is conspiring against us and the other is that our daily routines are so mundane that we wish we were in a movie.

Acclaimed filmmaker Knight got the idea for Locke when making his first feature-length movie Hummingbird (Jason Statham), imagining a man dealing with life'€™s pressures over the phone on a nocturnal drive.

In the less than 90-minute thriller, viewers feel like they are sitting in the backseat of the BMW M6 over the course of the film and witnessing Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) deal with his work and marriage, all crumbling around him from the very first phone call while he grips the steering wheel.

Hardy, aka Bane in the Batman series, is brilliant as Locke '€” cool and rational in the face of it all while negotiating his life, but explosive when contemplating his relationship with his father.

The movie is a combination of a good plot and setting, an unseen supporting cast '€” whose voices and intonation over the phone give depth to the story, even when they don'€™t talk.

Both the conversations and the stretches of silence make the trip from Birmingham to London feel more like a roller coaster ride of emotions.

The incessant ringing of the car phone reminds us of another urban issue: high phone bills.

Shot over two weeks at a total cost of US$1.5 million, the movie was screened at the Venice International Film Festival last August. It opened in North American cinemas on April 25 and is currently playing in Jakarta.

The premier on Tuesday was organized by movie news portal muvila.com together with Jive Entertainment as part of Save Jiffest programs.

Save Jiffest was started in 2010 by the organizers of the Jakarta International Film Festival (Jiffest) in appreciation for its crowd-funding donors.

The festival, partly funded by the Jakarta administration, was absent from the scene in 2011 and 2012 and returned in 2013.

'€œWe brought in the film for movie buffs who are not really into summer movies,'€ said Muvila marketing and communication executive Gayatri Nadya.

'€œIt could also be seen as a warm-up to Jiffest, which will be held in the third or fourth quarter of this year,'€ she added.

Locke
(85 minutes, A24 Films)
Director: Steven Knight
Screenwriter: Steven Knight
Cast: Tom Hardy, Ruth Wilson, Olivia Colman, Ben Daniels, Andrew Scott, Tom Holland
Producers: Guy Heeley, Paul Webster

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