locke movie review rotten tomatoes

A description of the location and action (or inaction) of “Locke,” a new movie written and directed by Steven Knight , can make the movie sound like something of a stunt. Actually, let’s just say that “Locke” is a stunt, inasmuch any work of art made under an entirely deliberate and arguably unnecessary restraint is. See, for instance, Georges Perec’s novel “La Disparation,” written without use of the letter “e.” (Perec’s work is part of a larger strain of literature represented by a French faction called OuLiPo, of which he was a member). “Stunt” need not be a pejorative, and when a work of art made under constraint uses said constraint to advance its theme in a way that conventional means could not, then the stunt becomes a transcendent one.

Before I lose you all with this high-flown contemplation of aesthetics, I’ll tell you the stunt of “Locke:” with the exception of its opening shot, which shows its title character getting into his tricked-out BMW, the movie is a one-man show that takes place as the title character is taking a long, fateful drive. The camera doesn’t always stay in the car, but it’s with Locke for the whole drive. We hear the voices of others, but we don’t see anyone else. The self-imposed minimalism of the conceit challenges Knight to make a compelling cinematic work. And it challenges the actor playing the title character more.

Fortunately, that actor is Tom Hardy , and boy does he do a job with his unusual, and unusually complex character. His face a clenched mask of thick brow and bearish beard, his voice a comfortingly gruff burr that can turn fearsomely sardonic at the tilt of a rearview mirror, Hardy uncannily conveys the weightless pressure and the suffocating freedom that can only be felt simultaneously by a man who’s divesting himself of his entire way of life. Because that’s what Locke is doing on his drive. He’s an architectural foreman who’s running out on the biggest job of his life. He’s a family man who’s making a confession of betrayal to his wife, the mother of his two boys. He’s doing all of this with full and appalling consciousness of the wreckage he’s creating as he’s doing it. Because of a decision he’s made to make right on a wrong move he made some months ago. Because of a conviction he’s arrived at to do something genuinely selfless.

How right is Locke in making the decision to drop everything he’s got to attend to the birth of a child he had never consciously intended to father? That’s up to the viewer to decide. Certainly audience members overly concerned with conventional plausibility will roll their eyes at certain circumstances of the scenario, but I wonder if they’ll repent when it’s revealed that Knight the writer has been ahead of them the whole time, and has answers to their concerns that are both nicely constructive and morally provocative.

The film’s formal box is one that felt, to me at least, potentially Pinteresque, and Knight comes up with pauses and quasi-aphoristic bits of dialogue—”You sound different.”/”I am the same.” goes one representative exchange, and, later, one character rages “The difference between never and once is the difference between right and wrong”—that recall/honor the late maestro while conveying their own uncomfortable truths. And while Hardy is alone on screen, he’s not alone in terms of acting strength: the people he’s talking through his life with are portrayed by the formidable likes of Olivia Colman (“ Tyrannosaur ,” “Broadchurch”), Ruth Wilson (“Anna Karenina”) and Ben Daniels (“House of Cards”), among others.

The movie isn’t perfect; Knight, who wrote “ Dirty Pretty Things ” and “ Eastern Promises ” and is here making his second feature as a director, sometimes gets a little carried away trying to maintain what he takes for visual interest. Not-too-functional shots of reflections of traffic lights in windshields and such play as a little labored, because they are. That’s not much to forgive, though, and in the end, “Locke” is a cinematic stunt that engrosses as it unspools, and pays dividends after it’s been accomplished.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

• Olivia Colman as Bethan
• Andrew Scott as Donal
• Tom Holland as Eddie
• Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke
• Ruth Wilson as Katrina
• Ben Daniels as Gareth
• Bill Milner as Sean

Cinematography

• Haris Zambarloukos
• Steven Knight

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Locke Review: Tom Hardy’s Riveting Solo Act

The new movie _Locke _is 85 minutes long, and Tom Hardy—as title character Ivan Locke, a building contractor playing hooky on the eve of the biggest job of his life—spends nearly all of them alone in a car. Sometimes he just drives. But most of the time, he's yakking on the phone—to his wife, his kids, his co-workers and his bosses—with occasional breaks to berate the dead father he imagines sitting in his Beamer's back seat. Aside from everybody's voices—well, not Dad's—in his ear, there's basically nobody else on the screen. Which means that calling this an acting showcase is like calling Locke's BMW a go-cart.

The protagonist is a pained, unhappy man who's gloomily determined to do the right thing, even at the cost of putting his marriage at risk and screwing up his professional reputation. We gradually learn that some months back, he impregnated a lonely woman during an out-of-town one-night stand. Now she's due to give birth in London—her panicky calls to him are the neediest ones on the soundtrack—and she's got no relatives or friends she can count on for support. So Locke is going to slay his own absentee father's selfish ghost by proving how upright he can be.

True, most women would probably swap a firm guarantee of child support for our hero's absence from the delivery room. But that would make a one-phone-call movie, wouldn't it? It's easy to get exasperated at how pleased writer-director Steven Knight is with his own ingenuity, given how neatly the tag-team conversations touch on all the bases of Locke’s life—both professional (we can tell he's really good at what he does) and personal (he's traumatized but resolute). If it weren't for the 21st-century technology, you could easily mistake _Locke _for a _Twilight Zone _idea that Rod Serling finally decided didn't have enough surprises to be worth shooting.

But Hardy is so good that the movie's premise only registers as the stunt it is in hindsight.  This actor's been doing terrific work in an eclectic bunch of movies for some time now, from his deft turn as Eames the "identify forger" in Christopher Nolan's _Inception _to adding a welcome touch of lowlife swagger to the gray world of _Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. _Playing Bane in _The Dark Knight Rises _might have been Hardy's breakthrough to stardom if not for Nolan's perversity in hiring one of the most compelling faces and voices in movies—if you can rarely take your eyes off him when he's on-screen, you seldom want to take your ears off him either—and then turning them both unrecognizable.

In _Locke, _funnily enough, those assets are almost equally hidden, in one case behind the kind of beard a wary man grows for emotional camouflage—definitely not self-expression—and in the other by a Welsh accent a lesser actor would strangle on. Yet Hardy is riveting, and that's not because he's showing off; it's because he's refusing to. In these circumstances, it takes a lot of confidence not to over-emote: Sean Penn would be so terrified of losing our interest that he'd have the steering wheel gnawed off before he was halfway to London. Hardy holds our attention by not worrying about it. He knows that Locke is bent on holding his unruly, unwelcome emotions in check, not venting them.

Part of what keeps his performance so credible is the way he passes up opportunities for mawkishness. Even when his son—who doesn't know why Mum's so upset—wants to burble on about the soccer game his dad is missing, Hardy doesn't sentimentalize Locke's mid feelings. He's not uncaring, much less callous, but he's also got a hell of a lot of other fish to fry that Junior isn't helping with.  One of the heftiest is the huge job he's delegating to a subordinate in the crunch—pouring the cement base for a skyscraper—and Hardy is wonderful at keeping us so intent on the practical details of the process involved that Knight's symbolic overkill (laying the _foundation _for a _building, _get it?) doesn't land with the thud you'd expect.

If it weren't for Hardy, the movie wouldn't amount to much more than a clever way for Knight to advertise himself. (It's got that "See what I can do?" vibe that also characterized Nolan's own _Memento—_and that worked out awfully well for Nolan, obviously.) Instead, _Locke _is a case study in what a difference an actor can make. Since he's only human, even Hardy can't save those wince-worthy soliloquies to spectral, dead old Dad in the rear-view mirror, which should have had cement poured over them from the get-go. Yet the fact that he even comes close makes you think that the guy could probably sell shoe polish to antelopes if he felt like it.

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

A guy in a BMW. Alone. Talking on the wireless. Voices on the speaker. He's Ivan Locke, a Brit, driving from Birmingham to London. In real time – 85 minutes. No flashbacks. Just this guy. Juggling crises. Don't freak out. Locke only sounds like a trap. It's a powerhouse of claustrophobic suspense and fierce emotion, mostly because Tom Hardy, best known as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises , is a blazing wonder as Locke. Writer-director Steven Knight has given Hardy the task of holding us spellbound as Locke, a husband and father, drives away from his biggest job ever as a construction manager and into the arms of a one-night stand who's about to have their baby. The voices of boss (Ben Daniels), crew chief (Andrew Scott), lover (Olivia Colman), wife (Ruth Wilson) and sons (Tom Holland, Bill Milner) jangle in Locke's head, and ours, as he makes his life-changing journey. Hang on.

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[ This is a re-post of my review from the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.  Locke opens today in limited release. ]

When a film is executed under a series of conditions, it can feel like an exercise. It can come off like a director running a test rather than telling a story. But restrictions can also spur creativity and yield unexpected results. Steven Knight ’s Locke sets its conditions: a story told in real time where the protagonist is stuck behind the wheel of a constantly moving car, he’s the only character on screen, and he only talks to other characters over the phone. Under these conditions, Knight and star Tom Hardy have created a surprisingly captivating picture where adultery and concrete maintenance carry the same dramatic weight.

Ivan Locke (Hardy) is a building site manager driving to London in the middle of the night so he can be present for the birth of his illegitimate child. The child was born out of a one-night stand with former co-worker Bethan ( Olivia Colman ), and now he feels responsible to the point where he’s willing to obliterate the rest of his life. The foundation is about to be laid for his historic building, and he has to hand it off to his ill-equipped employee, Donal ( Andrew Scott ). Locke also has to fight off a cold, reassure their boss Gareth ( Ben Daniels ), comfort Bethan, and divulge the affair to his wife Katrina ( Ruth Wilson ), and hide it from their sons Eddie ( Tom Holland ) and Sean ( Bill Milner ).

Locke’s life is on the verge of being completely demolished, but he’s going to make sure it’s a controlled demolition. Knight and Hardy quickly establish the character as a pragmatist who believes he can bring order to the chaotic reverberations of his one massive mistake. We can see the builder’s mentality in his every action as he believes he can juggle handing off his passion project to Donal with the same care as telling Katrina that he’s about to have a child out of wedlock. It’s a life philosophy tested to its utmost, and we’re kept on the edge of our seats to see if Locke can continue to walk a tightrope where other men would have easily fallen off or simply avoided it altogether by refusing to even acknowledge their mistake.

Hardy is perfect as the calm center of this brewing maelstrom, and his every word comes out like it’s gripping a ledge. He is meticulous to the point where the emphasis on every syllable feels carefully chosen, and it makes for absolutely wonderful line delivery. Hardy not only taps into the character’s personality without missing a beat, but he also has the monumental task of holding the entire picture without having another actor in the same physical space, nor can he even stand-up. He’s reliant on gestures and facial expressions. To top it all off, he then has to make us care about the logistics of his job and buy lines like “You don’t trust God when it comes to concrete.” A lesser actor would flail at having to get us wrapped up in a passion for something as unremarkable as concrete, but with Hardy, you almost feel like he’s one step away from a tour-de-force reading of the phone book.

Rather than try to match his actor’s intensity, Knight just keeps the film feeling dynamic. The moving car is crucial. It may seem minor that the story is set on a highway rather than streets, but the momentum is essential in a film where your main character is sitting for 90 minutes. From there, Knight doesn’t need to throw in anything flashy. He measures the close-ups, long shots, and sets a steady rhythm as the traffic lights move past Locke’s face. The situation and Hardy’s performance keep us so on edge that even an incoming call can cause a slight panic attack, not to mention the thought of a car crash destroying Locke’s delicate balancing act.

The film excels because of its constraints, and falters when unleashing Locke’s daddy issues as a means of exposition. Knight and Hardy clearly lay out the character as methodical, exacting, and pragmatic. He’s a person who believes he can have a calm and rational conversation with his wife about his adultery. To then have him angrily glare at the backseat in the rear-view mirror and hurl epithets at his father’s ghost feels out of character. It doesn’t seem like a coping mechanism for Ivan as much as it’s a way to explain to us why someone would risk his marriage and his job because of a moral obligation.

One could expand Locke into grandiose notions—the car is the constant movement of life, concrete is a metaphor for the foundation of his life that’s crumbling, etc.—but the film works best in its claustrophobic crisis mode. It’s a constant battle as Locke fights for his profession, his marriage, and against his mistake. Knight shows us the boundaries of his film, but that doesn’t make it any easier to breathe when the walls are closing in.

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Locke, film review: Tom Hardy goes on the drive of his life

(15) steven knight, 85 mins starring: tom hardy voices of: ruth wilson, andrew scott, olivia colman, article bookmarked.

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Locke is the story of a man desperately trying to "do the right thing", although it will cause his life to come crashing down. Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is the manager of a building site. He is first seen finishing work and climbing into his BMW.

Instead of going home to his wife and sons, he heads on to the motorway to London, to be at the hospital where Bethan (voiced by Olivia Colman), a 43-year-old woman with whom he had a one-night fling, is about to give birth to his baby.

As he drives, Ivan makes multiple phone calls. He is a calm, practical man who is about to lose everything – his family, his income, his good name. The writer-director Steven Knight's screenplay is on the schematic side.

There is something a bit too tidy in the way Locke's world disintegrates in the course of a 90-minute car journey. Nonetheless, Knight elicits an exceptional performance from Hardy as a man whose extraordinary self-discipline belies his seething inner turmoil and his resentment at the father who abandoned him during his childhood.

There is a forlorn comedy in the way Locke tries to coordinate a delivery of wet concrete at the building site he has just left. If the concrete isn't right, if there is a single flaw, a 55-floor building will crumble.

The film could easily have seemed static and claustrophobic. That it doesn't is due not only to the extraordinary gravitas and pathos Hardy brings to his role but to the unlikely lyricism with which Locke's fraught night-time motorway journey is shot.

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Comics On TV

What to know about locke & key before you watch, the series producers and stars talk about adapting the beloved comics, the changes made, and the source material's three pilots..

TAGGED AS: Netflix , streaming , television , TV

Netflix’s Locke & Key took a long road to become a series. Based on the acclaimed comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, it tells the tale of a family shattered by tragedy who move to Lovecraft, Massachusetts, only to discover their ancestral home is a place of magic, demons, and unresolved history. Published from 2008 to 2013, it was a smash for publisher IDW and quickly earned the interest of television producers.

In 2011, a pilot was produced for the Fox broadcast network which failed to go to series, but was warmly received when it screened at Comic-Con International: San Diego. After that, it spent some time as a feature film project before executive producer Carlton Cuse ( Lost ) got a hold of it in 2017. A pilot episode, produced for Hulu in 2018, would receive the same fate as the Fox pilot. The project soon moved to Netflix, where The Haunting of Hill House ’s Meredith Averill came on board as a co-showrunner, and a third pilot was filmed. But as Cuse told Rotten Tomatoes, the program needed that near-decade in development to strike the right tone even as the material inspired him to keep at it.

“The impetus to continue to work on this just came from a love of the comic,” he said. Reading it when first it first debuted in 2008,  Locke & Key quickly became one of his favorite comics ever. “[Joe and Gabriel] pulled off the near impossible, which was to do something that was emotional and heartfelt but also really genre. And it felt fresh. It didn’t feel like it was the derivative of like 20 other things, which they very easily could have done.”

The mix of genres and tones made it something special and something worth shepherding through two development cycles and two streaming platforms.

“There’s horror, there’s fantasy, there’s magical keys, there’s a murder mystery, there’s teen drama. And trying to sort those all out and kind of calibrate them and put them all together and make them all work together was something that’s hard to do,” Cuse said.

“It doesn’t fit into a box,” Averill added, “which I think is what’s made it difficult and a challenge to adapt, but also what makes it so special and unique.”

Cuse credited Averill with helping him “finding a shared vision for how we wanted to do the show.” At the same time, he considers the long development something akin to the way many TV shows begin.

“Just in the same way that if you make a pilot, you’ve made calibrations and readjustments [for its eventual series], we tried to learn lessons from the previous iterations,” Cuse said.

Those lessons led Cuse and Averill away from the more grotesque horror elements – though some of that still occurs – into a series which leans more into the family and fantasy aspects of the comic book. Averill said it was a conscious decision to avoid the graphic horror because “once you go there, there’s sort of no going back once you’ve set that tone.” Also, she noted the material does not have to be gory to be scary.

“There are other ways to get there,” she said.

And the other ways the television series gets to some of Locke & Key ’s ideas may surprise readers of the comic the most. Elements barely hinted at in the initial two stories become important touch points in the program’s first season. Character relationships are refocused and, perhaps most unsettling for some fans of the comic, the town of Lovecraft is now Matheson – a reference to horror and sci-fi writer Richard Matheson, who also worked in television and saw his stories adapted into films like I Am Legend and The Box .

(Photo by Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix)

As both producers pointed out, bringing a comic book to television is an exercise in “adaptation, not translation.”

“I think that we were so fortunate to get the freedom to remix from Joe Hill himself,” Cuse revealed. “I mean Joe was an active participant in our creative process. He co-authored the pilot. We had a lot of conversations with him all along the way. And his comment was, ‘Just doing a literal adaptation of my comic would be boring.’ And so he liberated us to not be afraid to really follow our creative instincts and desires.”

Those instincts often led the team to bring ideas from later in the comic into the forefront of the show for the sake of clearly delineating character ambitions. In the case of Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira, pictured), whose motivations are a mystery for some time in the book, Averill felt it was important to reveal the character’s true nature and objective as soon as possible. She was also pleased by the way it dovetailed into stories of the Locke family in Matheson.

“I think it’s a really nice reveal for our kids when they discover that what’s happening to them now has to do [with Dodge],” she said.

Other changes, like the Locke family initially living in Seattle instead of San Francisco were for “aesthetic” reasons and often suggested by Hill himself, who Cuse said was fascinated with the process and used the opportunity to make changes to his world. This is also the underlying reason Lovecraft became Matheson.

“He just wanted to pay homage to Richard Matheson who had died recently,” Cuse explained.

Connor Jessup , who plays oldest Locke son Tyler – and who came to the series with the Netflix iteration – felt the long development and remixing of ideas aided the show it getting to the core spirit of the comic.

“I think [it’s] about growing up through trauma, essentially,” he said.

As a result, the show feels more of like a fantasy adventure to him than the gothic horror he saw in the comics when he sat down to read them.

But part of Locke & Key ’s magic, both as a comic book and as a television show, revolves around the way it transforms into different genres with each scene and combination of characters. This was part of the appeal for Darby Stanchfield , who plays the grieving Locke matriarch Nina.

“It’s almost like three different layers wrapped up in one,” she said.

Of those layers – the fantasy, the mystery, and the family – Stanchfield felt from talking with Cuse and Averill that the family aspect was the most important. The Lockes have been thought a lot when we first meet them and their first few months in Matheson are no easier. Nevertheless, the Lockes’ bond endures and, to Stanchfield, forms the heart of the show.

“Which to me really extended to the heart of the kids and their high school friends,” she added.

In perhaps one of the bigger departures from the initial comic book storylines, a group of high school kids called “The Savini Squad” — in honor of horror effects make-up legend Tom Savini — become prominent in the story very quickly, which was another one of Hill’s ideas for the show. Cuse said their appeal became apparent thanks to the iteration process.

“It just seemed like, OK, this is going to be a big part of the show,” he said. “We should meet them in the pilot, we should get going with this.”

The group, which quickly adopts Kinsey Locke ( Emilia Jones ) into their number, will no doubt become fan favorites.

No matter how the show will be perceived, though, its curious production history will always be a part of its story. For Stanchfield and Jessup, taking over roles cast twice previously was something akin to taking over a part on stage. Nevertheless, there was some trepidation about watching the earlier versions.

“At one point someone asked me if I would be interested in seeing the Hulu version of it, which was the previous version. And it unlocked like an enormous terror in me,” Jessup said. “I mean I’m sure they did a beautiful job, but the thought of seeing someone else in the same situations still makes my skin — I feel so uncomfortable about it.”

Stanchfield also avoided the other pilots, but part of her decision to do so was on instruction from Averill and Cuse (pictured), who saw through her initial performance as Nina a new way to develop the character.

“We like your approach and we want you to just go with that,” she recalled them saying.

That difference in the character will be immediately apparent to readers of the comic, but Nina’s underling problems will eventually surface.

In fact, the unexpected way Locke & Key utilizes its source material may earn it a special place in viewers hearts — provided fans of the comic see the value in the ways it is not a literal translation.

“I hope the people who like the comics also like our show and that they are open to the changes and that they’re excited by and surprised by some of the things that we do differently,” Jessup said. “For me it’s always more exciting [that way]. I mean, I love the comics too, and I wouldn’t want the show to try and be a cheap shadow imitation of it. I think it’s better for the comics and for the show if it tries and finds its own language.”

Locke & Key launches Friday, February 7 on Netflix.

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Parents need to know that Locke is a tense, sleek, and deeply engrossing thriller that revolves around a construction manager (Tom Hardy) on the verge of professional and relationship suicide. There's no nudity or violence (except for a man hitting the steering wheel while driving) and virtually no drinking…

Why Age 15+?

Frequent strong swearing, including "f--k," "bastard," "arse," "s--t," "hell," "

The BMW logo is quite visible throughout the film.

Some yelling during phone calls. While driving, a man hits the steering wheel ou

A man discusses his infidelity.

One character talks (on the phone) about having beers while working.

Any Positive Content?

You can't overstate the importance of righting a wrong, even if it means going t

Locke is resolute and determined. He's also willing to step up to the plate afte

Frequent strong swearing, including "f--k," "bastard," "arse," "s--t," "hell," "Jesus," one use of "c--t," and lots of British slang.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Violence & scariness.

Some yelling during phone calls. While driving, a man hits the steering wheel out of frustration.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

You can't overstate the importance of righting a wrong, even if it means going to great lengths and undergoing great pain.

Positive Role Models

Locke is resolute and determined. He's also willing to step up to the plate after making a big mistake.

Parents need to know that Locke is a tense, sleek, and deeply engrossing thriller that revolves around a construction manager ( Tom Hardy ) on the verge of professional and relationship suicide. There's no nudity or violence (except for a man hitting the steering wheel while driving) and virtually no drinking or drugs, save for a verbal reference. But there's plenty of strong swearing (including "f--k," "s--t," "c--t," and more), and the material is intense -- particularly a wrenching admission of infidelity and two boys' reaction to the discovery that all may not be well with their parents' marriage. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (6)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Taut thriller may not interest teens (tons of profanity).

A master class in minimal setting and maximum storytelling, what's the story.

A fateful phone call sends construction manager LOCKE ( Tom Hardy ) driving through the night to another city, leaving his wife and two sons bewildered at home and his boss displeased at his abandonment of a project. It's the night before the biggest concrete pour in the country, and Locke is in charge ... until he has to inform his boss of his detour, which will make him miss being on-site. Even worse, the call requires Locke to confess to his wife (AKA the doting mother of his two boys) about an indiscretion. Will Locke lose it all?

Is It Any Good?

Taut, tense, and terrific, Locke is a textbook example of fine acting by the very talented Hardy. Without his deft and nuanced heavy lifting, this move would sadly be over before it even begins. After all, a movie set in a car, featuring just one character talking on a hands-free phone the entire time, doesn't seem like enough to hang an entire production on. But thanks to Hardy, it's more than enough.

He grips the audience throughout the entire ride and manages to find the complexities in a seemingly simple script. All at once, Locke's journey becomes a meditation on marriage, fatherhood, and morality. Viewers will feel like they're in the backseat of a vehicle being driven by a very interesting, and very pained, man, and they'll be fully invested by the end. The script does overplay some emotional moments -- especially as Locke deals with the fallout from his confession -- but thankfully, there aren't too many of these missteps. As Locke speeds toward his destination, physically and emotionally, you'll find yourself desperately wanting to be there when he arrives.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how different Locke is from other dramatic thrillers. What makes it thrilling? Does a film need to have action to fall into ghat category?

Is Locke a good man? What is he trying to prove about taking responsibility?

Do the characters -- and their reactions -- seem realistic and believable to you?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 25, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : August 12, 2014
• Cast : Tom Hardy
• Director : Steven Knight
• Studio : A24
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Cars and Trucks
• Run time : 84 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language throughout
• Last updated : December 5, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Courtroom Dramas

Thriller movies, related topics.

• Cars and Trucks

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Locke Movie

Centers on a man attempting to salvage his life over the course of one car ride.

Who's Involved:

Tom Holland, Tom Hardy, Steven Knight, Olivia Colman, Alice Lowe, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Bill Milner, Paul Webster, Ben Daniels, Danny Webb

Release Date:

Friday, April 25, 2014 Limited

Plot: What's the story about?

Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) has worked hard to craft a good life for himself. Tonight, that life will collapse around him. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul.

from imglobalfilm.com

3.42 / 5 stars ( 19 users)

Poll: Will you see Locke?

Who stars in Locke: Cast List

Tom Hardy ... Ivan Locke

Venom: The Last Dance , The Bikeriders  

Ruth Wilson ... Katrina

See How They Run, Suite Francaise  

Andrew Scott ... Donal

Back In Action, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery  

Tom Holland ... Eddie

Uncharted, Spider-Man: Homecoming  

Ben Daniels ... Gareth

Benediction, Doom  

Olivia Colman ... Bethan

Paddington in Peru, Wonka  

Alice Lowe ... Sister Margaret

Boyz in the Wood, Sometimes Always Never  

Bill Milner ... Sean

Anthropoid, The Lodgers  

Danny Webb ... Cassidy

The Regime (series), A Little Chaos  

Who's making Locke: Crew List

A look at the Locke behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Steven Knight last directed Serenity and Redemption . The film's writer Steven Knight last wrote Spencer and The Lost Symbol (series) .

Steven Knight

Screenwriter

Production Company

Watch locke trailers & videos.

Theatrical Trailer

Production: what we know about locke.

• World premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Filming Timeline

• 2013 - September : The film was set to Completed  status.

Locke Release Date: When was the film released?

Locke was a Limited release in 2014 on Friday, April 25, 2014 . There were 9 other movies released on the same date, including The Quiet Ones , Brick Mansions and The Other Woman . As a Limited release, Locke will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the film is playing in your area.

Locke DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?

Locke was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, August 12 , 2014 .

Q&A Asked about Locke

Seen the movie? Rate It!

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Follow the Updates

• Tue., Jan. 27, 2015 from Amazon
• added the US soundtrack release date of February 18, 2014
• added the US DVD release date of August 12, 2014
• added the US Blu-ray release date of August 12, 2014
• Sun., Mar. 23, 2014 from Apple Trailers
• added Theatrical Trailer to trailers & videos
• added a poster to the gallery
• Fri., Dec. 27, 2013 from A24 Films
• added a running time of 85 minutes
• added Danny Webb as Cassidy to credits
• added Bill Milner as Sean to credits

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05th Jul 2024

Prime Video has just added a very claustrophobic thriller drama movie

Stephen Porzio

This article contains affiliate links, we may earn a commission on any sales generated from it.

Holding a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was written and directed by the creator of Peaky Blinders.

Prime Video has just added Locke , the 2013 movie starring Tom Hardy which was written and directed by Steven Knight – the creator of Peaky Blinders.

In the thriller drama, the actor plays Ivan Locke, a family man and successful construction manager whose life begins to fall apart over the course of a car journey.

The film is noteworthy for taking place almost entirely in a car and for featuring only one onscreen actor in Hardy – though Andrew Scott, Ruth Wilson, Olivia Colman and Tom Holland have roles as the voices Ivan speaks to on his car phone.

While its single setting premise could have been boring in lesser hands, the 84-minute-long Locke is as gripping as an action-packed blockbuster thanks to its tour-de-force central performance and the level of depth of its lead character.

Holding a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, you can read a sample of some of the raves from critics for the movie right here:

The Australian: “Locke is an original and impressive experience, an unusual film of considerable quality.”

Daily Telegraph (UK): “There are no car chases and no car crashes, and no-one else appears on screen. Around half of the dialogue is about concrete. It’s one of the most nail-biting thrillers of the year.”

The New York Times: “Moment by moment, with a twitch, a shudder, a look, it’s Mr. Hardy who movingly draws you in, turning a stranger’s face into a life.”

Observer: “Writer-director Steven Knight gets more suspense out of the restricted nature of Locke’s predicament than you would ever think possible.”

Variety: “An exceptional one-man show for Tom Hardy, this ingeniously executed study in cinematic minimalism has depth, beauty and poise.”

Locke is streaming on Prime Video in Ireland and the UK right now. US readers can watch it in the States on Cinemax.

Read more :

• Netflix has just added one of 2024’s biggest action movies
• One of the coolest trilogies ever closes out with stylish new thriller movie
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• Season 2 of one of the best Irish gangster shows drops on Netflix today
• Netflix adds edge-of-your-seat survival thriller that viewers can’t get enough of
• An underseen Irish gangster thriller is among the movies on TV tonight
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'Walked Out of the Pages of My Book': George R.R. Martin Praises Next Game of Thrones Spinoff

A forgotten crossover brought together two of the best '90s sitcoms, every arrowverse crossover villain, ranked.

The eagerly anticipated television adaptation of Locke & Key is now available on Netflix, bringing the supernatural horror comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez to startling life.

The series has already proven to be a strong success with both critics and fans, as it currently has a 73 percent in both categories on Rotten Tomatoes .

RELATED:  Locke and Key: Netflix Releases the Series' First Ten Minutes on Youtube

Critics have lauded Locke & Key 's spooky atmosphere and fun take on the IDW Publishing comic source material, while common criticism has focused on the adaptation's inconsistent tone and pacing.

Locke & Key follows the Locke family, who move to their ancestral home of Keyhouse in New England. However, as the children acclimate to their new school and classmates, they discover the house has a dark reputation and magical keys capable of unlocking wonder... and evil.

RELATED:  Locke & Key Pays Tribute to Its Roots With Three Horror Cameos

Now available on Netflix, Season 1 of  Locke & Key stars Darby Stanchfield as Nina Locke, Jackson Robert Scott as Bode Locke, Connor Jessup as Tyler Locke, Emilia Jones as Kinsey Locke, Bill Heck as Rendell Locke, Laysla De Oliveira as Dodge, Thomas Mitchell Barnet as Sam Lesser, Griffin Gluck as Gabe and Coby Bird as Rufus Whedon.

• locke and key

Locke Review

By Rich Cline

A riveting performance from Tom Hardy makes this pseudo-thriller utterly riveting, turning even the most contrived plot elements into punchy drama. Like Robert Redford in All Is Lost or Sandra Bullock in Gravity, this one-person show also works as an intriguing cinematic experiment: telling an entire story centred only on a man driving a car for 90 minutes.

Hardy plays construction foreman Ivan Locke, who's set to oversee the biggest concrete pour in Europe. But at the crucial moment, he abandons his post and hits the road for a late-night drive from Birmingham to London. He turns his work responsibility over to his extremely nervous assistant (voiced by Andrew Scott ), but has a tough time calming down the corporate bosses. He also phones his sons ( Tom Holland and Bill Milner ) to tell them he won't make it home to watch the big game, but he struggles to explain to his angry wife ( Ruth Wilson ) the reason he's driving to London to meet a middle-aged woman ( Olivia Colman ), who is also sounding rather stressed down the line.

As Hardy's character tries to salvage his marriage, family and career, his moral conundrum becomes increasingly intense, and Hardy plays him as a man whose internal turmoil is raging behind his confident voice. It's a remarkably effective performance, gripping and involving, asking big questions even if the script never quite gets around to grappling with the issues at hand. It's also playing rather heavily on the irony that doing the right thing is likely to cost Ivan pretty much everything, leaving him alone and despised like his father.

Fortunately, writer-director Steven Knight finds ways to reveal all kinds of details without ever leaving Ivan's side. The shimmering nighttime cinematography swirls blurred lights around Ivan's anguished face, offering glimpses of painful soul-searching. On the other hand, there are flashes of misogyny and some preachy moralising that grate harshly along the way. Of course, the people on the phone are like voices in Ivan's head, so even if they're very pushy on a plot level, they offer several movingly resonant moments. And the delicate final moments leave us deep in thought as well.

Watch 'Locke' Trailer

Facts and Figures

Year : 2013

Genre : Dramas

Run time : 85 mins

In Theaters : Friday 18th April 2014

Box Office USA : $1.4M

Box Office Worldwide : $4.6M

Budget : $2M

Distributed by : A24 Films

Production compaines : Shoebox Films, IM Global

Contactmusic.com : 3 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes : 89% Fresh: 151 Rotten: 18

IMDB : 7.1 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director : Steven Knight

Producer : Guy Heeley , Paul Webster

Screenwriter : Steven Knight

Starring : Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke, Ruth Wilson as Katrina, Andrew Scott as Donal, Olivia Colman as Bethan, Tom Holland as Eddie, Ben Daniels as Gareth, Bill Milner as Sean, Alice Lowe as Sister Margaret, Danny Webb as Cassidy, Lee Ross as PC Davids, Silas Carson as Dr. Gullu, Kirsty Dillon as Gareth's Wife

Also starring : Paul Webster , Steven Knight

• Locke Movie Site
• Rotten Tomatoes

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