Too soon for a lockdown movie? HBO Max doesn’t think so. Romcom meets heist movie in Locked Down – Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor play Linda and Paxton, a couple who are forced into cohabitation after deciding to break up when a mandatory lockdown hits London.
The events in the trailer are all too familiar – Paxton is furloughed, he queues up outside a corner shop and berates a man leaving with four multipacks of toilet roll (“How many arses have you got?!”), Linda’s work days become a seemingly never-ending barrage of Zoom meetings. Plus, there’s the whole issue of their breakup. However, when an upcoming heist in a major London department store requires Linda and Paxton to team up (no, we’re not quite sure how we segued into a heist, either), could their relationship be saved?
Hathaway is no stranger to heist movies, having starred in 2018’s Ocean’s 8, while one of Ejiofor’s earlier movie roles was in iconic romcom Love Actually, so they seem like a pair well-suited to this particular plot. The supporting cast includes several familiar faces, including Ben Kinglsey, Stephen Merchant, Ben Stiller, Mindy Kaling, and Mark Gatiss.
The movie is directed by Doug Liman (who’s tried his hand at couple heist movies before with Mr & Mrs Smith) and the script was penned by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. It’s been a quick turnaround from production to release – the movie started filming in September 2020, it was acquired by HBO Max in December, and it’s being released later this month.
Locked Down starts streaming on HBO Max on January 14. In the meantime, check out our list of the best Netflix movies you can watch right now.
