Mark Reviews Movies: LOCKED DOWN

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 13, 2021

Locked Down eventually becomes a heist story, as an on-the-rocks couple decides to take advantage of a series of big coincidences to steal a diamond worth a few millions. If Steven Knight's screenplay didn't take that route, though, the film still might have been involving. That's because this story is much more about the central relationship, put under further strain by being stuck in the confines of their house on government-ordered lockdown, than the mechanics of a multi-million-pound robbery.

Yes, this is another in what's sure to be a continuous string of movies set during the current and ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Thankfully, it doesn't feel exploitative, if only because the movie evades the obvious horror of what's happening in the world. On the other hand, this material might seem to undermine the severity of our current crisis, because it's so light and jovial. Given the choice between the two extremes, the second—this movie's approach—at least offers some escapist comfort in the face of continuing uncertainty.

The epidemic and, more specifically, the United Kingdom's expansive lockdown measures are only the backdrop for this story. It follows long-term romantic partners Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as mandated confinement leads them to assorted personal crises and revelations, while their relationship seems only to be waiting for the opportunity to come to an official end.

They were going to separate, but then, the government ordered everyone to shelter in place. Now, things are really awkward in their London home.

Knight spends a lot of time with these characters in their now-regular routines before even the flash of an idea about a robbery comes into this story. Linda was recently promoted to a CEO role in a global marketing company. She—dressed and made-up to the nines from the waist up but sporting pajama bottoms—is on a schedule of daily online video meetings with employees, other officers, and the company's big boss. Because of the current circumstances, she has orders to fire a handful of employees, but she knows this has been planned for some time, before anyone even really knew about the virus. That's her crisis.

For Paxton, he has been stuck as a delivery driver for years. His employment opportunities have been diminished since the "bad, old days," when he was a biker and a drug addict and got into legal trouble during a bar fight while trying to protect a friend. Paxton is currently furloughed, depressed, and suffering from insomnia. He had to sell his motorcycle, and with Linda planning to leave as soon as the lockdown is lifted, that means he's losing the two greatest loves of his life.

Knight and director Doug Liman are patient with these characters, their failed and still-failing relationship, and the emotional and psychological strains being stuck at home have started or increased for these two. The pairing also and smartly sets up a class distinction—between the wealthy, still-working (and comfortably so) Linda and the working-class Paxton, who's losing a sense of purpose without anything to do—to offer some dichotomy and just a bit of ordinary economic realism to the material (only a bit, though, because it's not as if Paxton is financially hurting at the moment with a CEO for a partner).

The two sulk separately, as Paxton tries to find anything to and Linda faces a crisis of conscience about her position in an uncaring company. The couple bickers when they're together, because this relationship was in trouble well before the lockdown (Paxton obsesses over the presence of a stray Christmas decoration, because that's around the time he realized things were bad between him and Linda). It's played for humor, because the situation is somewhat absurd (Any relative or other living arrangement either might have is in the United States), but there's sincerity to the presentation of these characters and their problems.

It helps that Hathaway, as a former free-spirit restrained and befuddled by the heartless corporate world (She has a lengthy monologue about visualizing corporate-speak at a party), and Ejiofor, as a man who's down on his luck because he's certain fate has it in for him, are quite good here. It helps even more that they possess a tangible chemistry of caring beneath the external bitterness and desperation.

The story plays out for a while with this attention to these characters, gradually and subtly establishing the connections that will eventually lead the two to consider the notion of stealing a diamond worth £3 million from a fortress of a high-class store. Paxton has started driving again, off-the-books and under a ridiculous pseudonym set up by his boss (played by Ben Kingsley, in an extended video-chat cameo). Linda had the diamond on display for an event that was cancelled, and her boss (played by Ben Stiller, in a similar cameo) needs her to oversee all of the items being removed. Enter an unseen and unnamed dictator who purchased the diamond, and there's a chance to pull off the perfect crime with no moral consequences—but a lot of good that could be done with the money.

When the climactic robbery finally arrives, there's considerable proof that Knight and Liman are more concerned these characters than the heist plot of Locked Down. It's played entirely as a gag, filled with unwitting guards and people distracted by gossip and the late arrival of a man who could mean the couple's doom. What really matters during the sequence, as well as in each moment leading up to Linda and Paxton's decision, is this relationship.

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