Locke Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson. Directed by Steven Knight. Rated R. Opens Friday.

If you’re going to make a movie focused entirely on one man driving in a car, you better make sure that man is doing something interesting. Writer-director Steven Knight accomplishes about half of that in Locke, which features Tom Hardy as the title character. Locke spends nearly his entire drive talking on the phone, and his conversations with the scared woman (voiced by Olivia Colman) about to have his child, the wife (Ruth Wilson) to whom he decides to come clean and his two sons are often riveting. But he spends just as much time talking to his irate boss and his overwhelmed assistant about the construction job he left behind to attend to his personal crisis, and Locke features more detailed discussions of pouring concrete than any other movie ever made. Hardy’s strong performance holds the movie together, but after nearly 90 minutes in the car with him, it’s a bit of a relief when the ride is over.