COVID-19 themed movies are coming, and they are coming quick. “Locked Down,” an HBO Max original film, was so focused on stereotypical pandemic activities that it forgot to have a good plot.

The movie came out Jan. 14, and it would have been fine if it hadn’t come out at all.

The film begins just as the main couple, Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) decide to break up. Unfortunately for them, a lock down in London has started and they end up stuck at home together.

The movie contains all the classic stereotypical pandemic lockdown behavior we all know —  the zoom calls, working in your pajamas, sitting on the couch and getting cozy while drinking a little too much wine. 

In the film, Linda was known for being a heartless person. She was always the one appointed to firing employees because she had no emotions behind doing so. Paxton was passionate and hardworking, giving motivational speeches outside for their neighbors to hear and always doing his best to make ends meet. 

Tight for cash, Paxton was going to sell his prized motorcycle — which held sentimental value — for the couple. Linda ended up secretly buying the motorcycle to give it back to Paxton in what was probably the most romantic interaction the couple had throughout the whole film.

The couple soon turn to crime, deciding to team up one last time to steal a diamond from Harrod’s jewelry store. This section of the film is the only part of the movie outside of the house. During this section we see the mask wearing and social distancing that we’ve all become accustomed to. 

The film was advertised as a heist film, but didn’t exactly live up to that potential. The stealing of the diamond was such a small part of the plot, it didn’t produce the big climax I was expecting. 

They could have focused less on various aspects of the pandemic and more on the heist. The details of stealing the diamond were lacking — to say the least. Making the planning of the heist a bigger part of the dialogue would have helped the film a lot. 

The characters in “Locked Down” were also bland. Conversations between the two lead actors were boring. The script needed more gripping material, I almost fell asleep with how lackluster the whole film was.

Honestly this movie gave me “Marriage Story” vibes, it was like the pandemic version of that Netflix original Noah Baumbach film. This was especially evident in one scene early on in the film where the couple is fighting. That moment felt heavily influenced by the highly-memeable Adam Driver punching drywall scene in “Marriage Story.”

Going into it, I thought it would be an interesting watch that would at least hold my interest, sadly that was not the case. With the film having a run time of about two hours, it was just too much of not enough. That same boring plot definitely could have come across in a shorter amount of time.

Rating: 1/5 Stars