Movie Reviews
Locked In Movie Review: Testing Morality With a Fight to Survive
One in all my favourite issues about motion pictures is how writers and administrators can take the day-after-day and use it to provide us meals for thought.
Locked In author and director Carlos V. Gutierrez hopes to do this together with his movie.
Locked In will not be completely profitable, however you may be wanting over your shoulder the following time you are in a storage facility.
Mena Suvari stars as Maggie, a pious lady elevating her 17-year-old daughter, Tarin (Jasper Polish), alone.
Maggie’s husband is in jail, which provides the religious character some wiggle room when coping with seedy people and reminds her that the last word objective is survival.
In different phrases, morals be damned with regards to defending your loved ones.
Maggie is a supervisor for a storage facility. It is a construction a number of tales excessive and a maze-like floorplan.
Proper out of the gate, we study that Maggie is struggling financially. She will be able to’t maintain it collectively, and with eviction looming, her ethical bargaining begins.
Maggie and Tarin would not be on the StoreMore facility late at evening if she weren’t determined. However desperation takes on a brand new kind when mom and daughter get caught up in a deal gone unsuitable within StoreMore.
4 males discover themselves at crossroads searching for diamonds beforehand heisted. Lee (Bruno Bichir) owns StoreMore. He isn’t one of the best boss on this planet, however Maggie nonetheless cares for him.
Whereas in her workplace attending to her personal ethical quandary, she witnesses two males, Ross (Manny Perez) and Mel (Jeff Fahey), confronting Lee. Anxious for Lee’s life, Maggie decides to analyze.
That shall be a call she would possibly remorse.
Maggie, and ultimately, Tarin get roped right into a recreation of cat and mouse with males decided to get their arms on their treasured diamonds.
Earlier than it is all stated and accomplished, Costas Mandylor enters the scene as Harris, a detective who may be Maggie’s saving grace.
There are numerous the explanation why utilizing this setting is smart. It is desolate and stark, with many choices to inflict hurt on somebody.
Coming into Locked In, I believed somebody can be, properly, locked in. Because it seems, the time period should consult with one thing else that I have not decided as a result of no person is locked in with out the means to flee.
They’re out and in of that facility on a number of events, and Maggie and Tarin’s concern for one another’s well-being at all times drags them again in when one or the opposite escapes.
Locked In is a film the place each two steps ahead result in three steps again.
Simply after you are whooping it up as a result of Maggie pulled one over on the baddies, you are dumbstruck at her subsequent transfer.
It will get a bit of irritating watching characters who don’t act as anticipated, by which I imply how I might react in the identical state of affairs.
Then once more, if everybody acted as I might, the film can be a lot shorter.
The solid is comprised of working actors who pump up B motion pictures with their presence. They’re greater than up for the duty, nevertheless it’s arduous to not surprise how they ended up right here, as most are higher than the fabric.
What makes Locked In fascinating is that Maggie is repeatedly uncertain of her actions however is aware of she’s acquired no different selection.
Her confliction works, nevertheless it nonetheless appears like we solely scraped the floor of why it really works.
As a lot as Gutierrez tried to discover how far you’d go to guard those you’re keen on, a deeper understanding of Maggie would have made the movie extra impactful.
Yow will discover Locked In on VOD platforms similar to Prime Video and Apple TV.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a employees author and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Alternative Affiliation, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of tv and movie with anybody who will hear. Observe her on Twitter and e mail her right here at TV Fanatic.