‘Locked Down’ Review: Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a convincing couple in lockdown in Doug Liman’s pandemic drama
Planning a heist during a lockdown? That’s something you don’t hear every day
We have been getting lockdown themed movies and shows since it started in March 2020. But Doug Liman really takes the cake in that as his lockdown movie, titled Locked Down is entirely different from the rest. Liman, along with screenwriter Steven Knight finished the story in July, sold it in September, and finished shooting for it in late October.
The movie premieres on HBO Max on January 14 and by every means, looks like a movie that was shot on the fly. It is set a few days into the first month of the pandemic (a radio reference about British Prime Minister Boris Johnson being hospitalised is heard, which happened in April) and majority of it is set in a townhouse on Portland Street in West London, where we see Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, as a couple who had been through numerous ups and downs, hang out, bicker, break down, and do everything they can to not cave under the pressure of confinement.
What about the robbery?
Ejiofor plays Paxton, a former druggie and bad boy biker is currently a van driver who is trapped in a cycle of self loathing. Hathaway plays Linda, a CEO with her own issues and heads a ruthless UK branch of an amoral conglomerate.
The robbery happens when Linda has to move a $3 million Harris Diamond from a fabled Harrods department store to be delivered to some ruthless dictator. Paxton’s weekend gig was to pick a certain shipment from Harrods. When they realise this, they decide to steal the diamond and replace it with the fake one that’s on display for the public.
Liman does a great job in making this low budget movie into a caper suspense. The couple and their troubles is relatable for most people and let’s one acknowledge the inner demon inside them who is going nuts due to the lockdown. You will enjoy it without a doubt.
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