Best & Worst – Ranking Ireland’s Cinema Releases from April 2014

Locke

I’ve been driving in my car – ★★★½ (NW)

Tom Hardy is the only actor we see in this rather unique film that sees his character Ivan Locke taking a drive from Wales to London one weekday evening and making a series of increasingly taut phonecalls. To say much more probably ruins the weirdness of the film and the experience of getting inside a man’s head over the course of an hour and a half.

Locke is a very dreamy film with the warm and beautiful motorway lighting providing a perfect backdrop to the cold LEDs of a modern car’s instrument panel and bluetooth phone dialler. The film includes great voice acting from the likes of Olivia Coleman, Andrew Scott, Tom Holland and Alice Lowe but tying the voices to the parts is a fun challenge for the film buffs in the audience.

Being in near real-time means the film meanders a tiny bit and the ending tries a little too hard to tie everything up in a nice tidy bow as Ivan tries to hold everything dear in his life together.

It should be noted that no other film will teach you more about concrete and construction this year. And that’s a stone cold fact. Which cements Hardy’s reputation as a top-notch actor. Rock solid.