Manuel São Bento
January 23, 2021
6
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Watching a film set during a global pandemic while actually going through a global pandemic can have a significant negative impact on the viewer, depending on how the latter feels about the real-life problem. Honestly, my expectations were pretty low, but Locked Down is one of the most pleasant surprises I've had the luck of coming across in the last few months.
Steven Knight's screenplay is humorously clever, packed with jokes about humanity's silliest behaviors during a lockdown. From the ridiculously amount of toilet paper rolls to the arguing about the most irrelevant, unimportant things at home, Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor deeply elevate a simple yet entertaining narrative with two incredibly amusing performances. Their chemistry is on-point, and their characters are equally funny.
Doug Liman crafted a two-hour enjoyable, inoffensive, mostly realistic story of a couple in need of finding what made them fall in love... at least until the beginning of the utterly absurd third act. Yes, the whole movie follows a generic formula filled with cliches, but the last half an hour switches to a ridiculous heist mission that doesn't really connect with the characters or the story until that point (besides the dozens of logical issues it raises).
Overall, I recommend it to anyone who has a couple of extra hours to watch something light on TV, but if you genuinely want to escape or forget about the current global situation, then maybe it's better to save this one for another time.
Rating: B-
Horrendous. I am so sick of this terrible lockdown films, trying to make light of the last year.
### **Review: *Locked Down (2021)***
**Score: 4/10**
*Locked Down* is a fascinating cinematic artefact—a film so inextricably bound to the moment of its creation that it feels less like a movie and more like a high-concept, celebrity-stuffed time capsule. Directed by Doug Liman and penned by Steven Knight, it follows a London couple (Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor) on the brink of separation, whose pandemic-induced lockdown malaise turns into a plan to execute a high-stakes diamond heist. Despite the immense talent involved, the film is a tonally chaotic, self-conscious oddity that earns its poor reviews, saved from a lower score only by its sheer audacity and the committed efforts of its cast.
**The Central Paradox & Questions:**
**A show about a pandemic released during the pandemic... begs the question: how long did this take to make?** The answer is shockingly fast: the film was written, shot (secretly, under strict COVID protocols in London), and rushed to release on HBO Max **all within about six months** in 2020. Its release was **not a coincidence** but a deliberate attempt to be the *first* major cinematic commentary on the universal lockdown experience. This explains both its raw, immediate energy and its profound lack of perspective; it's reacting to a trauma while still in the middle of it.
**What Works (Barely):**
* **The Cast's Valiant Effort:** Hathaway and Ejiofor are phenomenal actors who commit fully to the material, delivering monologues about existential dread, capitalism, and love with a fierce, stage-like intensity. They are the only reason the film is remotely watchable.
* **Moments of Authenticity:** In its quieter, less plot-driven moments, it captures specific, universal lockdown feelings—the claustrophobia, the weird video calls, the sudden petty arguments—with a painful accuracy that now serves as a historical record.
**Why It Fails Dramatically:**
* **Tonal Whiplash:** The film cannot decide what it is. It lurches from a strained domestic drama to a pretentious philosophical treatise to a farcical heist comedy, never settling into a coherent groove. The jarring shifts undermine every genre it attempts.
* **A Cynical, Unearned Core:** The pivot to a heist feels less like an organic character choice and more like a desperate screenwriter's ploy to inject "excitement" into a two-hander. The social commentary—lamenting corporate greed while planning a multi-million-pound theft—is muddled and hypocritical.
* **The "Of-the-Moment" Curse:** By trying to be so instantly relevant, it aged catastrophically fast. What felt raw in late 2020 now feels awkward, dated, and oddly exploitative of a collective trauma that had (and has) no tidy narrative arc or satisfying heist-movie conclusion.
**The Verdict:**
*Locked Down* is less a good film and more a bold, failed experiment. It is a case study in how speed and topicality are poor substitutes for narrative cohesion and genuine insight. Watch it only for the curiosity factor—to see A-list actors grapple with a script written in the white heat of a global crisis—or as a bizarre piece of pandemic-era pop culture history. As entertainment or drama, it is largely a misfire, a well-acted but ultimately **locked-in** creative endeavour that never finds its key.
**Watch if:** You are a completist for the filmographies of Hathaway or Ejiofor, or are fascinated by media created as an immediate response to major world events.
**Skip if:** You seek a coherent, enjoyable heist film or a nuanced drama about relationships under pressure. This is a chaotic, pretentious, and often frustrating experience.
