Title: Locked In
Director: Suri Krishnamma
Running Time: 111 minutes
Major Actors: Ben Barnes, Sarah Roemer, Eliza Dushku, Abby Steinman,
Helen Steinman, Clarke Peters
Locked In The Theater
Both the failure and the victory of Locked In, directed by Suri Krishnamma, is the lack of likeability of the main character, Josh, played by Ben Barnes. Josh is a man who doesn’t know what he wants and is unable to completely commit to any one thing in his life. Through flashbacks, Krishnamma reveals critical moments in Josh’s life that lead up to the position he finds himself in at the present, but rather than draw us in emotionally and make us feel for the character’s plight, the use of flashbacks does almost the exact opposite.
Josh cheats, he drinks, his arrogance crowds out the world, and he thinks only about himself. The more we see of his life, the sadder we feel for him, but the more we want to distance ourselves from him. Even sitting in the theater starts feeling like too much investment of our attention for a person who has done so little to deserve it. It comes as no surprise that Josh’s family also shares the same sentiments and his wife has already kicked him out of the house.
As unbearable as his character is to behold, without his poor decisions and the drudgery that accompanies them, there would be no film at all. His conflict then becomes the audience’s, do we stay and watch the miserable mess of his life unfold as he tries to fix it with halfhearted attempts at putting other people first, or do we bail? Because, even though his troubles are the centerpiece of the film, without some level of entertainment, interest, or connection to Josh’s story, there is no point in staying in our seats to see it unfold.
The message of the film about the importance of making emotional connections to the world around you is troubling and uncomfortable to ponder, but nonetheless a message that will stick. Although immediately transparent once stated the first time by Frank, a mystical character played by Clarke Peters, who appears out of the blue to try and help save Josh’s daughter, the twist at the end of the film drives the message home and gives it a more impactful manifestation.
Several times throughout the film, Josh believes he is receiving phone calls and messages from the beyond from his daughter, who should be lying in the hospital bed unmoving and unable to respond to any environmental stimulation, much less make contact with the outside world. The movie becomes rife with confusion as we hear her voice, read her messages in the news tickers, and see the drawing she must have done at her bedside, despite her condition. The movie takes an almost supernatural turn and is only more muddled by the occasional reappearances of Frank, who comes with the same message each time he visits.
The flow of the film was also compromised, which could have either been a ruse to reinforce the feeling of entrapment or simply the result of poorly timed reveals. The build of action in the beginning, when we discover his affair and watch as he slips away from his family into a life consumed by work and lust, gives way to long and ultimately stagnant moments that provide only repetition of earlier facts or character unveilings, such as the scene where two minutes are filmed of Josh and his wife smoking on a balcony.
At the end of the film, it becomes apparent that Josh’s unlikability was the entire focus of the story all along and that it was necessary to dislike his character in order to fully grasp the punch of what the message was attempting to portray for all its cloaks and haphazardly constructed twists. The audience’s self-evaluation following the viewing of Locked In is a reaction many films strive for, but few accomplish. Though in the attempt to move beyond conventions set by the thriller genre Locked In became trapped in the flytrap of conventional props, such as entirely too convenient solutions and 180-degree plot twist, the end result redeems much of what had placed the film into the closet of unremarkable psychological thriller movies.
Because of Josh’s inability to make one true, strong emotional connection, he became trapped. He was a boat adrift in the ocean with no sight of shore, no anchor, and nothing to hold on to. For Josh, it was too little too late, but we as viewers have the opportunity to reevaluate our lives and reconsider what we determine are the most important things in them. Instead of wallowing in self-deprecation and self-pity, we must rise up and take control of improving our own lives. As Frank restates several times throughout the film before disappearing into a cloud of mist, “Only you have the power to save yourself.”
