The Sunday Mail
Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
I am going to start by letting the cat out of the bag: I love Anne Hathaway!
She is one of my favourite actresses of all time.
A true living icon, she is great in everything, and no film better demonstrates that than the coronavirus-themed romantic comedy “Locked Down”.
Also labelled as a heist movie, the film follows the life of Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Linda (Hathaway), a married couple that get trapped by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in the United Kingdom just as they decide to separate.
It is during the lockdown, and after spending weeks milling around the house, that the two decide to steal a priceless diamond.
Under normal circumstances, this is a film that cannot possibly be expected to be successful, but strangely it is.
First of all, “Locked Down” is a cheap, lazy and predictable take on the Covid-19 pandemic.
Much of the dialogue and characterisations are obvious.
It does not offer anything new.
Paxton and Linda represent the ‘everyman’ of the pandemic, as they go through the motions we have all experienced since the start of the lockdown in March last year — talk of companies struggling, employees losing their jobs and couples fighting due to boredom and lack of income.
Chiwetel and Hathaway save writer Steven Knight by doing a splendid job in accurately dramatising the burden of the virus and the lockdown on one’s psyche.
Hathaway descends into grief as she has to live in the same house with the man she has just decided to divorce.
The chemistry between her and Chiwetel is arguably the best part of the movie.
One almost forgets that this is a heist movie, with the actual robbery coming late in the third act.
I have to say this is by far the least imaginative crime flick in the history of cinema.
The film was written and shot in the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic.
Actors and actresses, outside the two leads, were communicating through skype and zoom.
I have seen films and shows that have chosen to acknowledge the pandemic (cue in masks, zoom meetings and skype calls), and Knight should thank his lucky stars that Chiwetel and Hathaway are such great actors that gave his production an edge.
The film has a healthy set of cameo appearances, with the most notable coming in the form of Ben Stiller (Solomon), Dule Hill (David), Stephen Merchant (Michael Morgan), Mindy Kaling (Kate) and Ben Kingsley (Malcolm).
