Movie (HBO GO)
It’s only a few seconds in Director Doug Liman’s pandemic-set romantic comedy heist film when truth bombs start dropping from every direction, when Paxton’s (Chiwetel Ejiofor) family asks how he is doing amidst the lockdown in a zoom call, he answers:
(Should I tell) a convenient lie to avoid forensic examination of our domestic circumstances?
When we are all unlocked from this fu*prison of psychological hell chains, the fuc flames of burning aloneless. The screw of isolation until you can’t tell what is your body and what is furniture. (with) No possibility of revving the engine and riding away.”
The film is filled with so many realities for many people, back-to-back zoom meetings while wearing pajamas, food being delivered at home, cutting off family and friends who believe in conspiracy theories and yes, even the fascination with baking bread. There are so many harsh truths, you want to laugh and cry at the same time, because that’s you, you can really relate to the characters.
The story focuses on an estranged couple Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Linda (Anne Hathaway) who are stuck together in quarantine. The forced isolation also forces the couple to re-examine their lives and priorities (it seems to be a Covid-19 symptom-as pointed out in the film).
An opportunity comes for the couple to change their lives when a diamond must be transported from Harrod’s and as fate might have it both Paxton and Linda are in on the extraction team. A Covid-19, heist-comedy with a bit of drama and romance “Locked Down” may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is a fun story from an otherwise strange situation.