Locked | Film Review

 

After breaking into a luxury SUV, Eddie (Bill Skarsgård) finds himself trapped at the hands of a dangerous vigilante (Anthony Hopkins).

I hadn't heard of this film before it came out, but the premise was an interesting one so I decided to give it a watch.

Because I hadn't heard of it, I had no idea who was in it, so I was shocked to see it was a two-hander with Skarsgård and Hopkins, and wondered why it was getting no promotion!

And then I started watching it. And unfortunately I knew from the first 30 seconds that the tone wasn't something I was vibing with. And of course this can change as the film goes on, but for me it didn't.

I never really cared about the characters and what happened to them, and although the premise is somewhat unique, while watching the film, it didn't really feel like anything new.

I completely get the intention of creating a single-location thriller, especially when two amazing actors sign on, but nothing about this film, other than the acting, is strong. Neither the location nor the writing works well.

Speaking of the location, single-locations movies can either be amazing and compelling, or they can get a bit stale and boring, and this one is unfortunately the latter.

About halfway through, the film tried to have a strong, almost politically-minded message, and this just never felt like the time or place for it. It then tried to put more effort into making us care about both of these characters, but by this point, it was too late.

This isn't a long film at just over 90 minutes, but it could have been even shorter. In fact, if this was a short film, it probably would have been a lot more compelling.

Overall, this film is on the bad side of average, and fails to make good use of the amazing actors attached to it.

4/10