Locke!!!!

Locke.

A man, a car, a long stretch of motorway and a phone and you have pretty much the main items that make this film what it is. Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is a concrete expert and is driving home the day before one of Europe's biggest concrete jobs and it all rests on his shoulders to pull it off. 

Taking his work boots off and sitting in his car he locks the doors and from now on his journey home will define his future. On his journey home his whole life will change, his career, family, friends and job will all slowly slip away from him and when he arrives at his destination he will be a changed man.

The film itself for me is seriously impressive, having just one actor on screen for the whole hour and a half is a risk but Tom Hardy manages to pull it off with such ease. Hardy portrays Locke with such ease and impressively with a welsh accent to boot, you see his character go through the whole up and down emotions, he can be serene and calm one minute and bashing the steering wheel in a fit of rage the next. 

The one way in which the film stands out visually and impresses on first glances is it is set at night in total darkness with just the motorway street lights in the background. It really brings out just how lonely Ivan Locke is in the darkness, encapsulated in his own little chaotic world inside his car driving to somewhere he knows will change his life totally. With constant phone calls going back and forth between Ivan and his co-workers about the big job he has to explain to everyone his intentions and why he is doing what he is doing. Other actors make voice appearances Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson and Tom Holland all voice different people in Ivan's life and all manage to work well and help bring out at times the best and worst of Ivan.

For a film with just one main actor on screen in the small space of a car it is seriously impressive and brings out some serious acting chops for Tom Hardy. Usually cast in big action budget films we finally get to see just the pure acting skill of Tom who again portrays Ivan with ease. The camera work is perfect for me as every angle is covered and the backdrop on a dark motorway at night just shows the reflections in the windows and how the outside world can just fly by. 

Anyone who loves nothing but a tense, at times emotional yet purely acted film then do check out Locke as it is by far Tom Hardy's greatest performance on screen to date. The film has you hooked from the start, you twist and turn and guess what happens next and when you get it wrong you think it's cleverly done which it really is. A no doubt in my mind seriously impressive film that no doubt will not get the big wide consumer audience it truly deserves.

10/10.

How I Live Now!!!!

How I Live Now.

One thing that was close to happening in the UK in the early 1960's was the Cuban Missile crisis where the UK was at panic stations and under threat from all out nuclear war. With the United States finally agreeing to a un-heard kept quiet arrangement with Cuba the threat of Nuclear War was to be stopped dead in its tracks. 

This is where the premise of How I Live Now comes in. A young girl Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) is flown from her home in the United States to spend a summer in the UK with her cousins Edward (George MacKay), Isaac (Tom Holland) and Piper (Harley Bird). As the three are left to fend for themselves in the countryside while Daisy's Aunt Penn (Anna Chancellor) travels back and forth to London as she works for the government the four get along well. Daisy soon starts to become attracted to Edward as he shows her that she doesn't need to be so uptight and nerurotic all the time, finally giving in the two soon become a couple and enjoy each others company. 

As a bomb goes off in London the whole of the UK is now into lockdown, with a US consulate arriving to give Daisy a flight back to the US she has to decide what to do. Staying with her cousins they are soon rounded up by the Army and are sent to different locations within the UK. Edward shouts to Daisy to travel back to the house if they have the chance as he will meet them there and they can be together again as a family. Situations change for the girls and for the boys, being attacked and nearly held hostage, staring death in the face and learning to love what you have in life now they go through alot of motions. 

For a film that has the underlying theme of a Nuclear bomb going off in the UK it shows how the government would have reacted to this and how to protect their own residents. It is of course a typical boy meets girl, get seperated, vow to find each other, bad things happen, find each other and live happily ever after type of film which I didn't expect. Ronan as Daisy is the main impressive force in the film and you see her character change and learn to be a better person over the course of the quite short film. The on screen love story between Ronan and MacKay could be seen as happening for real on screen as the two outside of the film are now dating. 

For a film about a Nuclear threat I found it too bland and not enough information was given out, who attacked the UK, what happened to change the situation in the end, what was the resolve and what happened to the mother/aunty. Obviously it wasn't to go into too much detail as it would baffle and confuse a much younger generation in which this film is mainly aimed at. A nice film that lacks that information based history that I wanted to get from the film but praise to Ronan again showing she is a strong actor and on the verge of great things. 

7/10.

The Impossible!!!!

The Impossible.

One film that I have finally seen after putting off seeing for weeks it's The Impossible, a hope filled story about how amazing the human spirit can be.

Based on a true story it sees the Bennett family decide to go on a Christmas Holiday break to Thailand, upgraded to a beach side villa they spend time with each other at the beautiful holiday resort. While the family are sat by the swimming pool that's when disaster hits, a tsunami hits the resort washing away trees, buildings and of course all five family members. 

As Maria (Naomi Watts) and Lucas (Tom Holland) are left to drift in the water they finally unite and learn to help each other out to find safe shelter and help. As you follow their story you see how strong the mother and son bond is and how much they both depend on each other in order to survive. The simplest of emotional scenes where a mother looks at her son and then another stray child they've found in the water just shows the caring side of a family unit. 

As they both find help from the local people and are taken to the local hospital Lucas is told to help other people find their lost family members. The story then turns to the father Henry (Ewan McGregor) , as he walks through the mud he is eventually re-united with his two youngest sons Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast). With the mother lying in hospital it's up to eldest son Lucas to find his other two brothers and father in and amidst the complete chaos at the local hospital. With chance meetings running through some of the scene's it's a question of will the mother survive? and will the family be finally re-united at last?.

The most impressive scenes in the film have to be that of the tsunami and the aftermath as the scale of the scenes are impressive. The way in which audio and sound are used during the film really make it feel real, from the whirling of the water and the burst ear drum whine it's clever. 

Of course it has to be said the film belongs to Naomi Watts and Tom Holland as the relationship between them as mother and son is really impressive and shows how strong a mother and son bond can be. With mother and son swapping places from a scene at the start and end of the film it's a nice little swap with poignancy behind it. 

The only downside I can find with the film is that some of the scenes are a little too predictable and you can guess what will happen next. Sometimes you feel the film could have gone into different territory and finished off some other peoples stories in the film but it's nothing too bad.  

Overall The Impossible is to be seen as a film about how amazing the human spirit can be and how important family life is as you never know what can happen next.

8/10.