Tom Hardy in a 90-minute race against time. Thriller by Steven Knight.

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Night is coming: Ivan Locke, manager of a large construction site in Birmingham, tells his crew they will be pouring the foundation for a big project the next day. But Locke won’t be there – he’s decided to quit and concentrate on his personal life. He gets in the car and drives to London, where Bethan, a woman he had a one-night-stand with, is about to give birth. Locke wants to stand by her and not abandon her like his father did. Locke gets stuck on the phone, encouraging his insecure colleague Donal he’ll be fine in his staid, calming his boss, telling the whole truth to his wife Katrina and supporting an anxious Bethan.

There are few movies that mix and reduce time, place and plot as radically as Locke. Buried (2010) by Rodrigo Cortés is comparable: a man lies in a coffin fighting for his life. This kind of movie depends completely on its star. You hear him speak, there are other people at the other end of the telephone line, but basically you stare continuously at Tom Hardy, a 37-year-old actor from London. Screenwriter and director Steven Knight captivates the audience with his minimalistic psychodrama, perfectly implementing Aristotle’s drama theory of uniting place, time and plot into one. Astonishingly, Steven Kinights thriller about one night has more depth and suspense than many overblown action thrillers.