Locked Down

Although it was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is set during the COVID-19 pandemic, Locked Down doesn’t dwell on death tolls or mask mandates.

Rather, this small-scale romance from director Doug Liman (The Edge of Tomorrow) uses that topical backdrop to fuel a saga of relationship strife and socioeconomic desperation that ultimately can’t break free from its gimmicky trappings.

As the film opens, there’s much more than six feet of social distance between Linda (Anne Hathaway), an American executive based in London for a retail conglomerate, and her longtime boyfriend, Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a poetic ex-con working as a courier.

“I’ve been furloughed. Now there’s literally zero purpose to my life,” Paxton laments as part of an endless string of rantings and ramblings about home confinement.

Meanwhile, Linda is laying off staff members via Zoom and contemplating whether to accept a promotion that includes a position in New York.

Both decide to spice up their relationship, and their bank account, by trying to use Linda’s connections and some timely security loopholes to steal a rare diamond from a department store. That’s never as easy as it sounds.

Although the film doesn’t wallow in the despair of the times, it does check some boxes — poorly framed online chats fraught with technical difficulties, conspiracy theories, pessimism and stress, and blue-collar economic fallout.

Your enjoyment of the film might depend on how closely these hardships hit to home. After all, while the strong performances convey appropriate angst, they don’t exactly elicit empathy or catharsis.

With its fixed interior locations, Locked Down takes on the pared-down intimacy of a stage play about a dissolving marriage prior to its third-act thrills. The heist subplot might require a suspension of disbelief, yet at least it offers a mildly suspenseful diversion from the monotony that precedes it.

The self-conscious screenplay by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) injects some welcome levity, including a running gag about Paxton’s fake ID bearing the name Edgar Allan Poe. Likewise, there are amusing Zoom cameos from Ben Kingsley, Ben Stiller, and Mindy Kaling.

The film depicts the ways in which the pandemic causes changes in our lives, some more welcome or more permanent than others. However, its disparate elements never quite come together as a satisfying whole, making it more noteworthy for its timing than its content.

Rated R, 118 minutes.