Delayed Reaction: Locke

The Pitch: Tom Hardy in a car for 90 minutes. Your move, Samuel Beckett.

How I Came Into It: I forget how, but I stumbled across the trailer for this a while back and it intrigued me. Tom Hardy is one of my favorite actors over the last 5 or so years. I tend to like these limited perspective experiments. Phone Booth is fun. Buried is more engaging than it should be. I hoped for similar results with Locke.

Why I Saw It: This doesn't work if Tom Hardy isn't fun to watch. Just seeing his temperament change depending on the person he's talking to. There's the authoritative ease telling his replacement what he needs to do, the desperation talking to his wife, the irritation talking to the woman having his child, the rage talking to his father's ghost. I was impressed by how easy the pace of the movie was. A movie of driving shots and phone calls shouldn't be this interesting.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: But it still is a movie of driving shots and phone calls. It feels more like an experiment than a fully realized movie. Sometimes you don't want to play pool though, you just want to see trick shots. As a trick shot, it's good.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend