Locked Down Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs
2. The Heist Is Incredibly Underwhelming
Now, it would be extremely unreasonable to expect a top-tier slice of heist cinema from a movie conceived during a pandemic on a budget of just $10 million, but even then, this aspect of the film is quite underwhelming.
For starters, Locked Down is really 75% rom-com, 25% heist film, with even the mere prospect of the diamond theft not being introduced to the narrative until the movie's second half.
And it's really quite generous to call it a heist, given that there aren't any major hurdles which Linda and Paxton need to circumvent. The production evidently just hired Harrods out for a few days and wrote the script around whichever rooms were made available to them.
The jewel theft is neither intricate nor clever, and you couldn't be blamed for feeling like these scenes were more an advert for Harrods - especially its admittedly incredible breakfast hall - than anything.
Admittedly the film does freely acknowledge how shockingly easy the job is due to COVID limiting in-person security, but that doesn't excuse how lacking in interest and basic fun this sequence nevertheless is.
The fact that the film actually exists and was shot while the UK was in lockdown is basically far more compelling than the central "action" itself.