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One small slip...

Locke (2013)

 The family unit is such a fragile institution. In a modern affluent family, when economic assurance is a sure thing when the family members do not have to border whether the next meal would be present on the table, they demand emotional supports. They demand loyalty and love. One wrong move that questions your undying commitment to the family, everything things else goes out of the window. It does not matter if you bring a sizeable bacon to the table or that you had sacrificed your whole life for them. One scratch and you are a discard.

This British drama starts with a man entering his BMW M5 after a long day's work. At a junction, after much deliberation, he takes the other turn. That is it. The protagonist of the show, Ivan Locke, a concrete engineer by profession decides to do the right thing.

He has many things on his mind now, and he has to handle all of them as he travels in his M5 all along the M6 in his one and a half journey from Birmingham to London. Betheda, a lonely 43-year-old spinster office secretary with whom he had one-night-stand after an out-of-town project, is going into premature labour at eight months. He decides to be there upon the child's arrival, to take responsibility, unlike his father who had not been there for him. He has to break the shocking news of his infidelity to his wife. His family is getting all set to watch the big game on TV tonight. To top it all, his company is embarking on a mammoth project where there are laying concrete cast for the base of a high-rise building. And he is sorely required to be there!

The whole movie involves one actor, Tom Hardy, who makes all his persuasions, cajoling, pleas, instructions and requests via his hands-free mobile unit. In between his 36 over calls, he soliloquies and admonishes his father, whom he imagines to be seated at the back of the cars, on his actions and inactions.

Another intense drama which may not excite a few with its characterisation, the claustrophobic feel to set and the intensity of the emotions involved.
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