Tom Hardy driving down a motorway, never once leaving his car, while having long monologues about concrete - it's almost like Steven Knight wanted people to marvel at his film's ability to turn the mundane into an incredible character piece. While Buried and All Is Lost built tension from a single man fighting for his life in extreme circumstances, Locke takes the ever-growing lone-actor sub-genre to new areas, showcasing a self-imposed isolation as the life its titular character has built up (wife, kids, important job) crumbles apart by his own hand. To anyone who hasn't seen the film, the plot synopsis - Locke runs away the night before the biggest concrete pour in Northern Europe, dealing with his families reaction to his disappearance and trying to fill his assistant in on what needs to be done - sounds pretty plain, but to anyone who's seen it it just conjures up memories of the balance Knight (who's most prolific impact on pop culture is making Who Wants To Be A Millionairre) strikes with his script and the hypnotic way he shoots driving down a motorway at night; being on the road hasn't been so stylishly realistic since Drive. Although really the film belongs to Hardy, and not just because he maintains a Welsh accent for the whole run-time. The mounting pressure on him, with Locke finally realising his own fundamental flaws, is gradual, emotional and, most scarily, relatable.
