Waste of time

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Ivan Locke is a construction manager who abandons a major project (and his family) to be there for a woman at the birth of his illegitimate child from an affair. They portrayed the main character as a responsible "good guy" who had made a mistake and was trying to do his best to make things right. His stubborn insistence on doing the "right" thing cost him his job, and likely his family. Tom Hardy is the only actor on screen, the entire movie taking place in his car, the dialogue being real-time phone conversations about construction and sportsball and family wreckin' stuff. Neither the writing nor the acting was good enough to support the concept. Why didn't he tell his wife earlier? Why didn't he prioritize the wife and two children he already had while figuring out how to be a father to this new baby? His car trip was only a few hours, why didn't he just drive back to work the next day? Why was he ironing out major details of the biggest job of his career the night before? I worked as a construction manager for many years, and the dialogue about his job sounds absolutely idiotic. I suppose it might slide by anyone who hasn't spent time in construction, but it was a distraction for me and also indicative of the other flaws in the writing. The moral ambiguity and question as to whether he was a responsible person or absolute moron is what made the film interesting and kept me watching to the end, but I would really like those two hours of my life back now. Here's the real spoiler: Ivan Locke is a douche. The kind of douche who ignores the feelings of everyone around him because he insists he knows what's right. The kind of self-obsessed douche who talks on his phone while driving on the freeway because he believes everything is all about him. kept hoping there'd be a surprise ending where he was pouring his heart out to his wife making some real progress towards personal growth and BAM! Killed by an 18 wheeler because he should've been driving instead of talking on the phone. That would've been an interesting twist but alas, no. The final disappointment this film had to offer me wastjat in the end he just goes on being a douche.

I must admit to not normally being a fan of the "one man show" either in film or on stage, but this film is a welcome exception. Tom Hardy continues to impress as the actor who completely engulfs the character - flawlessly! There are several points along the plot when I worry things won't work out for this man, who's trying so steadfastly to do what's right. Virtually everyone is hurt along the way but forward he must plod, thanks to a faithless father whose shoes he swears he'll never walk in. This film is as much about the testament of how our parents affect our entire lives, well and long after childhood, as it is about doing the right thing. This is something hardwired into his psyche; he has no choice, just as he has no choice but to see to conclusion the project on the job he's SPOILERS! Just been fired from. His choices would make good conversation. Would you do what he does? Would you have the conviction? Could you even do it and risk all? Definitely something to consider. I recommend this film enthusiastically! Enjoy!

Who would have thought I could watch Tom Hardy take phone calls for 70 minutes? If I had been told that's what I would be doing, I wouldn't have watched, but it was riveting! Maybe because every woman I've ever known acted like these women in the movie. Maybe it was his cool demeanor that I could have never had under these stresses. Anyway, it was just fascinating to watch him handle it without yelling. My favorite part was the delivery of the last line of the movie. Can't tell you or they'll make me say this is a spoiler...

This story is remarkably well told in a movie that hapens entirely in a motor car driven by a man that talks one after another on the phone dealing wth several troubles he got in his life because of a momentary fancy with a woman that he met once and whom he rendered pregnant in one night when because of his job he was away from home. He abandons his work pecisely on a moment he is most needed there because there is a very important delivery which he should have been surviving. He is fired from his job, his wife after knowing what he had done forbids him to return home where he lives with her and their two children. and breaks their marriage Everything because he gets a phone cal from the woman he had rendered pregnant telling him she is in the maternity to have a baby of whom he is the father and is very distressed and has nobody ( friends or relatives) to stay beside her. He starts then a long trip by car to the London maternity where she is because he feels morally obliged to stay beside her though he doesn't love her. He is a normal good family man after all, And the news coming from the maternity are not good. The childbirth has got a serious problem and a caeserian operation must be made.The whole movie develops itself on a succesion of phone calls some of them afflictive and intensively dramatic that he must attend or call and talk to, to or from the pregnant woman, the maternity doctor and nurse, or to or from his wife, or to or from his job, trying to solve on the phone all the problems that arise. But he gets informed that he is fired. Despite the fact that the whole movie runs all the time only with one person driving a car and talking on the phone it is full of overwhelming suspense till the end.