Film Review: "Locked Down" (2020).

"Some people unravel faster than others" in Locked Down. This romantic comedy heist film directed by Doug Liman and written by Steven Knight. Just as they decide to separate, Linda and Paxton find life has other plans when they are stuck at home in a mandatory lockdown. Co-habitation is proving to be a challenge, but fueled by poetry and copious amounts of wine, it will bring them closer together in the most surprising way.

In September 2020, the film, originally entitled Lockdown, was announced with Liman as director and penned by Knight, who had wrote the script over a dare. Anne Hathaway, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Stephen Merchant, Mindy Kaling, Lucy Boynton, Dulé Hill, Ben Stiller, Ben Kingsley, Mark Gatiss and Katie Leung were cast. Lily James was originally cast but had to drop out and was eventually replaced with Boynton. Principal photography took place over the course of eighteen days during the during the COVID-19 pandemic in London, England. Due to the limited resources and short production window the order of several scenes needed to be adjusted, forcing Hathaway and Ejiofor to tape their un-memorized lines around set. Despite initial reports it had a budget of $10 million, Liman insisted the actual cost of the film "started with a three."

The film stars Hathaway, Ejiofor, Merchant, Kaling, Boynton, Hill, Stiller, Kingsley, Gatiss and Leung. Hathaway and Ejiofor shine in this interesting COVID heist movie. It's brought to life by the two performances from Hathaway and Ejiofor that are both hilarious and emotional.

Ridiculous as it is, this protracted setup gets at an essential truth of an amateur movie heist: The plan is a flirtation, loaded with both the promise and the threat of consummation. The film is a fun escapist flick for the pandemic, examining life under quarantine, and the reflections that come with living during an era of incredible uncertainty. The film's uneven tone, lack of dramatic urgency, uninteresting characters, and lackluster heist drag it down. A sluggish heist comedy set in times of COVID that spends its premise and confinement clichés in its first few minutes. As much as I thought the film's heist element was unnecessary, which it is, Liman sure knows how to make it exciting and even in a pandemic. As a writer, Knight needs his tendency to sprawl reined in. Liman, one of the best action directors today, is not the person to do it. The film is inevitably, and intentionally, of the moment. But I hope some of its off-the-cuff spirit lasts after the pandemic. The film does a fairly convoluted job at trying to turn its earnest domestic drama into a snappy heist, but it more or less succeeds. While the film is an undoubtedly fascinating pop-culture curio, it's also sloppy and cringe-inducing, and feels like it was made in a hurry. The film suffers from wanting to do too much despite myriad internal and external limitations. Sometimes, less is more and this probably would have been one of those times.

Simon says Locked Down receives:

Also, see my review for American Made.