If you are a filmmaker who wants to be marked with a high -level concept, low budget filmCatching a protagonist in a small space for an entire movie is a proven and true strategy.
Joel Schumacher found success by limiting Colin Farrell to a salary phone in “Phone Box”, Willem Dafoe Charmed Audiences while locked in a penthouse “Inside,” And now fans of such films can look forward to watching Bill Skarsgård Spend almost a whole feature film in an SUV in “Locked.”
A new recording of the Argentine thriller “4 × 4”, and often for cheese -like for his own good, David Yarovesky’s two -hand stars Skarsgård as a small time guest who chooses the wrong self -driving vehicle to break into. He is captured and tortured over the phone by William (Anthony Hopkins), a dying man who is tired of small crime. The film’s attempt to explore morality can be overwhelming, but “locked” finds lots of stupid opportunities to exploit their gimmick of a premise, probably to the delight of anyone who willingly buys a ticket to a movie about Bill Skarsgård located in a car.
Not since Jean Valjean stole bread to feed starving children have we expected to sympathize with a thief as much as we are at the beginning of “locked.” Eddie Barrish (Skarsgård) is a Hustler who cannot take a break to save his life. His beat-up-cab car needs a new generator, and a mechanic tries to shake him down for twice as good what he pays in rent every month to do the job. He can’t get his van back until he pays up, and he can’t do it until he puts in more hours as a delivery driver – which he can’t do without the van. The evil bike is aggravated by the fact that his adorable daughter, Sarah (Ashley Cartwright), calls to see if he can pick her up from school. He must hide his shame about his inability to come through basic parental tasks.
In an attempt to get things back on the right track, Eddie makes a bad decision. He breaks into a glossy black luxury -Suv in the hope of finding something he can sell for a few hundred dollars. But the doors are quickly locked behind him, and an unknown number calls him on the car’s Bluetooth system. Anthony Hopkin’s voice starts talking to him, and Eddie learns that a broken generator is the least of his problems. William’s SUV has been broken six times over the past year, and when he disappeared away from prostate cancer, he thought a schedule to make an example of the next thief that crossed his way.
The movie continues to play as a watered down version of a “saw” movieWith William playing a version of Jigsaw which is less marginally sadistic but perhaps even more self -righteous. All the extensions he chose at the dealer prove to be useful to make Eddie uncomfortable, as he uses everything from intense heat to blowing cold air conditioning to get his starving, thirsty prisoner to confront their paths. (However, it is difficult to imagine a dealer involved in the Tasers he built into the car.)
He goes to Eddie to provide his social security number so that he can run a credit check and confront him over his overdue child support. And things really take up when the car starts to drive itself, with William who threatens to control his passenger from the edge of a building or to innocent children. William makes it clear that his torture methods will not end until Eddie agrees to a violent method of cure for his sins, with alternatives ranging from cutting four fingers to pushing itself in the head with a comfortably placed gun.
A movie that takes place completely inside a car is burdened in itself by a limited visual vocabulary, but Yaroveky finds ways to become creative by relying on pictures from William’s six surveillance cameras in the car in addition to the conventional cinematic shoots. These moments of naturalism work better than many of the shots that take place outside the car, which often use shiny heavy -handed lighting to suggest who we should see as good and evil.
The question of what we see as “good” and “bad” represents the backbone of the story, because the two characters see the world completely different. William is a deeply rich man and has the luxury of Russian about principles. He sees consequences for our actions as the only thing that separates people from animals and believes that his final purpose in life is to introduce liability in society. Hopkins has an explosion with the role and sprays single people out of right and wrong while they happily press buttons that throw Eddie in close death scenarios behind a curtain. Skarsgårds Eddie, on the other hand, has no time for ideas, since every second of his day is simply spent to meet the family’s own material needs. His performance is a bit less theater, but it is suitable for a character that does not have the time or energy to create a Hollywood person for itself.
These are not exactly new ideas, and “locked” does not do much more with them than we have seen countless times before. But perhaps everyone who expected a movie about a man captured in an eccentric billionaire’s self -driving car to write about our notions of morality has only themselves to blame for asking too much. A movie like “Locked” life and dies of its ability to entertain us with pictures of a man who turns on tinted windows for help while facing the prospect of being thrown from the roof of a parking garage. And on it it delivers.
Rating: C+
A The Avenue edition, “Locked” now plays in theaters. “
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