Netflix's Latest Thriller Will Have You Locked In (Pun Intended)
Not to sound like a stereotype, but I don't particularly get along with my mother-in-law. But the situation in the latest Netflix thriller, "Locked Up," is a great reminder that things could always be much, much worse. Despite little fanfare upon release and next to no promotion tied to it, "Locked In" has been consistently holding it down on the streamer's Top 10 list since it arrived on November 1. If you've not heard of the film, here's the official synopsis:
Katherine, a former Hollywood actor, wakes up in the hospital unable to move. She's been hit by a car and suffers from locked-in syndrome — her eyes are the only thing she's able to move. Through her nurse, Nicky, we find out what's led to Katherine's hospitalization. Katherine, communicating with her via letter board, blinks when Nicky reads the correct letter: She claims there's been a murder. Through flashbacks, we see snapshots of Katherine's life just after she adopts her late best friend's daughter, Lina. Lina idolizes Katherine and quickly becomes close with her chronically ill son, Jamie. Later, Lina and Jamie get married — much to Katherine's dismay, as Jamie is the heir to his late father's manor, where they all live. As Lina and Katherine's relationship deteriorates, Lina bonds with Jamie's doctor, Robert, and tragedies befall Katherine's family.
Locked-in syndrome is a rare disorder that effectively paralyzes people, but the person is completely conscious and capable of understanding and processing everything around them. This idea of a thriller centered around a person who cannot express what they've witnessed has been tackled before with films like 2001's "Don't Say a Word" and the 2007 conspiracy thriller "Awake," but director Nour Wazzi's feature-length debut is one of the most-watched films on the platform despite only a handful of official reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But is it worth watching?
Yep, it's a Netflix movie alright!
Set in the English countryside, "Locked In" stars Famke Janssen ("X-Men," "The Faculty") as Katherine, Rose Williams ("Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris," "That Dirty Black Bag") as Lina, Finn Cole ("Peaky Blinders," "F9: The Fast Saga") as Jamie, Alex Hassell ("The Tragedy of Macbeth," "Violent Night") as Dr. Robert Lawrence, and Anna Friel ("Marcella," "Pushing Daisies") as Nicky Mackenzie, and all deliver some pretty solid performances. If you're a fan of the era of formulaic but respectable crime thrillers from the late '90s and throughout the '00s, this will be right up your alley. Honestly, it shares a similar flavor to a made-for-TV crime thriller you'd catch on Lifetime or Oxygen on a Sunday afternoon, which is sometimes all anyone wants to kill an hour and 40 minutes with.
I hate to call this a "background" film, but it is the type of movie you put on when you don't really want to pay attention, but sitting in silence with your own thoughts is just too much to handle. Enter: watching a film like "Locked In." Fortunately, the big reveal of who attacked Katherine is pretty easy to figure out, so fans who actually paid attention will feel rewarded and validated almost immediately. I don't have any theories as to why this film is performing so well when there are other releases of better quality and with more name value than this flick, but I'm not mad about it. As far as I'm concerned, anything that proves the algorithm is an imperfect system that can't actually predict what will be a success gets a gold star in my book.
Oh, and there's no such thing as too much Famke Janssen.