Why So Blu?

Locke (Blu-ray Review)

Ivan Locke (Hardy) is a man at the top of his game. A dedicated husband and father and a star employee at a high-powered construction firm, he’s the model of cool professionalism with a talent for managing complex situations. Driving home on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Locke makes a sudden choice to go confront the only situation in his life that can’t be neatly handled. He quickly learns that the cost of becoming a better man is high. Locke is a unique cinematic experience and gripping story of choices, consequences and a man who risks everything he holds dear in order to do the right thing.  

Film 

Ivan Locke, on the surface, seems to have it all: a great job, loving family, expensive car, etc. Yeah, on the surface, some would call him very successful but Ivan has a moral dilemma. During this seemingly uneventful night anything and everything will come to a head as he begins to slowly deal with the consequences of some of the choices he has made. Ivan Locke seems like your average Joe as he navigates phone call after phone call with his co-workers, loved ones, friends, and various other folks in his life. He’s calm, collected, and keeps cool all while speeding down the highway hoping to get to his destination before the sun comes up.

Ivan literally has stopped his life dead in its tracks in order to deal with a grave situation that has grand implications and may destroy the life he has built for himself but he’s adamant that he must get through it. As he continues to drive and contemplate his life he begins to talk to the image of his imaginary dead father and lets loose his real feelings towards the man that was never there for him growing up. Ivan confesses that he’ll never be that man. As these occasional scenes play out in between phone calls it’s as if Ivan is having a cathartic experience – essentially talking to himself. It almost reminded me of Taxi Driver and Travis Bickle. I’m also; if you haven’t noticed already, trying to keep Ivan’s final destination spoiler free, so don’t mind the abstraction.

Writer-director Steven Knight (Redemption) delivers a tour-de-force of a film and gets a grand performance out of Tom Hardy playing the conflicted Ivan Locke. I am a big fan of Knight’s writing and thought Redemption was one of the best films of 2013. He’s two for two now with Locke. Now for those that are expecting this film to play out like a play then you’re half right. It’s a “theatrical” film, if that makes sense. Hardy is in a real car driving down the road as cameras film his every move and record his every conversation. We are guided by his decisions and know that he doesn’t have much time to get to his destination. This is shown all while never leaving the interior of his BMW. You’re driving shotgun with Hardy, if you will.

Locke runs a brisk 84 minutes with credits and feels like it’s playing in real time even though several hours pass by while driving. It’s been the year of the independent British films, along with Under the Skin, and others, as Locke has carved out its place among them. When the time comes at the end of the year to compile my Top-10 list make no mistake, Locke will be on it. Tom Hardy is proving time and time again that he can do no wrong and can confidently pull a performance out of the most interesting of material. Steven Knight is on fire and I look forward to his third picture whatever it may be.  For now, Locke is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Clarity/Detail: Contrast and sharpness levels on this Blu-ray are great. I did not notice any instances of over processing or post-production tweaking. Locke on Blu-ray is near reference.

Depth: Locke has a very stable picture and the level depth in just the car and space we’re confined in is pretty staggering. You won’t need a pair of 3-D glasses for this show!

Black Levels: Locke takes place entirely at night and I am happy to say that the Blu-ray is crush-free.

Color Reproduction: The color palette is fairly limited to what Ivan is wearing and from the chest up but the colors do come into the mix when the camera pans around showing the gleaming lights of the highway, cars, light poles, etc. Lens flares are actually appropriate here.

Flesh Tones: Ivan looks as healthy as can be although since the-you-know-what has hit the fan he is a bit flushed.

Noise/Artifacts: I did not detect any anomalies of the sort.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Subtitles: English, Spanish, English SDH

Dynamics: You’re riding shotgun with Ivan and this lossless soundtrack is exquisite. There’s no over exaggeration in terms of beefing up the sonics to give it that extra push that it doesn’t need. It sounds nice and natural and very realistic. Fasten your seat belts!

Low Frequency Extension: There’s a bit of LFE thrown into the mix most notably when Ivan is hitting the gas or when the engine revs up, etc. There are no chases or crashes in this film, so the mighty LFE channel is there to give the proceedings a nice flourish.

Surround Sound Presentation: Ambience is the name of the game and you’ll feel like you’re in the car with Ivan – the proverbial fly on the wall, if you will. You’ll also hear many sounds coming from the outside and along the highway.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is king in Locke. There are accents galore form everyone over the phone to Hardy’s Welsh one but they all come through in a clear, concise, and crisp way. You’ll never need to scratch your head and ask what was being said, because the dialogue levels are absolutely brilliant.

 

Extras 

Locke contains a director’s commentary, featurette, and a theatrical trailer.

• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Steven Knight – This commentary track should have been a bit more exciting one but it was not. There are MANY long pauses in between discussion, which is very unfortunate, because when Knight explains a scene or what happened during filming, he’s hardly dull. I cannot say the same about the track. I was severely disappointed by it.
• “Ordinary Unraveling: Making Locke” (HD) – Here’s a featurette than runs just under 10-minutes and it’s nothing special really. It’s a run-of-the-mill talking head featurette that we’ve all seen before.
• Theatrical Trailer (HD) – The theatrical trailer for Locke is presented in high definition.

Summary 

 Locke is essentially “theater in a box,” or in this case, “theater in a car.” Tom Hardy pulls off a great one-man performance and knocks it out the ballpark. The Blu-ray has a very dull commentary track by writer-director Steven Knight, which should have been miles better than what we got, and a short featurette and trailer. You know what? It doesn’t even matter. Locke is a powerhouse of a film and deserves to be seen by a wider audience and this Blu-ray is more than adequate. Locke is one of the best films of 2014.

Order Locke on Blu-ray!