Any plan made by Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is solid; preferably set in C6-quality
concrete, no less. He is loyal,
reliable, no-nonsense; the kind of building project manager you want when you are
putting up the largest skyscraper in Europe. Not only does he make sure there
is a plan, and a back-up plan too, but he’ll also be on location to see it through to
completion and manage any last minute hitches that might arise.
But when the “perfect storm” breaks out in perfectionist
Ivan’s well-organised life, he has to set his priorities and manage the concurrent
and disparate crises the only way he knows how. Actually, he really needs to be
in three places at once. Although that's impossible, this is the 21st century and Ivan Locke, project
manager extraordinaire, believes that with the help of his mobile phone provider it must be feasible to “drive and chew
gum” at the same time. But can personal crises be managed like major snags in a building-project?
Steven Knight’s tightly scripted drama is a
tour-de-force brought to the screen with an economy of means entirely consistent with telling the story grippingly.
Dickon Hinchcliffe’s score reinforces the pace. The
screenplay is a gift for a gifted actor, which Tom Hardy picks up with a
flourish; he is ably supported by a vocal acting ensemble. The only slight flaw in
the screenplay is making the psychological childhood trauma of the relationship
between Locke and his father too explicit; here less amateur psychology and more confidence in the power of imagination the audience would have been better. But despite this, Locke is a terrific film. Incidentally, it is
eminently suitable for adaptation to a theatre- or radio-play.
Locke is a must for control-oriented
managers who struggle to distinguish between their professional and private
life. I plead guilty. It is also very
insightful for anyone, male or female, who aspires to a management career, or
has to deal with a concrete- thinking management type in their lives.
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