“Locke” is a one-man film who is in for a long car ride. Its only character that is seen throughout the entire movie is Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy). Every other character is only heard by the speakerphone in his BMW. The concept of “Locke” seems to gear towards forgiveness, since all of these problems are trying to be discussed and resolved by phone, or it could be director Steven Knight’s perception of discussions that seem cinematic, yet striking.

Ivan Locke is a family man and a construction manager. As soon as his shift ends, his boys call him to make it home for one of the biggest football games of the year, however, Ivan receives a phone call that is one of the biggest challenges of his career and sets a variety of conflicts that he struggles to resolve. Instead of dealing with the people verbally, he decides to go on a long drive to fix another situation but also deal with the rest of the other problems that is putting his life at stake. 

“Locke” is one of those last minute films. The film was shot in six days and all of the voices of the people that Hardy’s character speaks to was recorded in hotel rooms separately. 

In the film Hardy’s character has a cold and that was actually not intended but was added into the script. This happened because during the production, Hardy had a cold, but being on a tight schedule they just included his character being sick. Knight’s objective to include Hardy’s real-life cold sets the film to even be more suspenseful, because with all of the stress that Hardy’s character already has on himself, this just takes the cake for it being a bad day for him.

With this film, the technical element that grasped my attention was the oblique angles of the car and Hardy’s face when it was in frustration. In those moments, the colors faded and it is cinematic because it immerses viewers to feel like they are part of “Locke’s” life.

When Knight directed “Eastern Promises” that film was violent and contained tons of vulgar language, but was a masterpiece. Normally his films consist with violence to make entertaining. “Locke” is just as entertaining. Not with violence, but with aggravation and guilt that Hardy plays perfectly.

Four stars.

Movie Review to come soon are:

*22 Jump Street
* Locke(independent movie)
* A Million Way to die in the West
* Edge of Tommorow
* Blended

And many more to name a few…

Brilliant and charming together, Chris and Paul Weitz “About a Boy” is hysterical and fun for parents and their teenagers. It is an honest comedy about why it is important to grow up and have a strong work ethic and Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult both are a knockout in this comedy/drama/romance flick.

Will Freeman (Grant) is a lazy man with an easy life who inherited so much money given that his father was famous for writing a song. Since his father’s passing, Will has never worked a day in his life. Meet Marcus: a twelve year old who lives with his chronically depressed mother Fiona (Toni Collette) and does not have many friends at all. Both Will and Marcus want to be happy in their life somehow. Only difference though, is Marcus is practically poor, and Will is really wealthy but does not have to do anything to make money.

As soon as Marcus and Will meet, Marcus starts hanging out at Will’s place twenty-four, seven. They watch shows, go to stores, and horse around consistently. Marcus is doing this though, because he is aware that Will is into dating single moms. Marcus knows that Will is wealthy. Therefore, in Marcus’s hopes, he is praying that Will meet his his mom (Marcus’s) as a single mother and be together with her.

The message from “About a Boy” is that life is not all about setting relationships up. As soon as Will starts to be against Marcus’s idea, he starts to go into detail about why that does not work. Marcus though, has his reasons as well. That all Will does is seek entertainment and live the high life and is not motivated. The film has the right ending though, to the right answers of what to do if people are ever faced living their lives like these two gentlemen are.

Grant is touching in this film. He is known to play the laid-back characters and upper-class gentlemen in most of his movies. In “About a Boy” though, the laid-back characteristic comes back to haunt him.

This film is brilliant and touching to the point where you do not want it to end. Four stars.