Locked Down review

athaway and Ejiofor play a couple pushed to breaking point by lockdown in this disappointing pandemic drama

In the right hands, storytelling within a framework of restrictions can lead to thrillingly inventive film-making – think the Dogme films, with their vow of creative chastity, or single-location thrillers such as Gustav M�ller’s The Guilty or Steven Knight’s Locke. Knight wrote the screenplay for this Covid-19 drama, but the tale of a struggling marriage – Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor are suitably mismatched – pushed to breaking point by the first pandemic lockdown is worlds away from the lean cinema of limitation of Locke. Instead, the film busts a gut attempting to free itself from the confines of the couple’s home. In this, it’s at least true to the spirit of lockdown, but it feels like a missed opportunity.