Bill Skarsgård
[Author's note: Because a family emergency necessitated a trip to Chicagoland this morning, it'll take a few extra days to compose this week's movie column. In the meantime, preceding my eventual coverage of No Other Land (excellent), The Alto Knights (better than expected), and Snow White (oh, Disney … ), here's one review I had the accidental foresight to write on Sunday.]
LOCKED
For roughly two-thirds of its length, director David Yarovesky's largely stationary thriller Locked is like 127 Hours if the boulder were played by Anthony Hopkins.
Cast in the James Franco role, Bill Skarsgård is chronic loser Eddie Barrish, who's contending with an ex who hates him, a van he can't extract from the shop, and an adored grade-school daughter (Ashley Cartwright's Sarah) he can't properly care for, nor pick up from school without said van. While slyly checking the door handles of cars he can break into, he finds one in a sleek SUV sitting in a mostly empty parking facility. Looking for something he can pawn, Eddie enters the car and shuts the door. Yet before he can make off with some chic designer sunglasses, he discovers that the driver's-side door is somehow now locked from the outside. So are the other doors. So is the hatch. There's no cell reception. The tinted windows mean no one can see him. The car's soundproof body means no one can hear him. The glass is unbreakable. (As Eddie learns the hard way, it's literally bulletproof.) But at least the vehicle has been souped up so that its owner can see, hear, and talk to Eddie from afar … which would be a relief if this smooth-voiced guy weren't a raging psychopath.
While my initial mention of 127 Hours may have been cheeky, the comparison is also accurate, because 127 hours is almost exactly the length of time in which Hopkins' SUV owner torments the increasingly panicked Eddie, who's trapped with no food, no water, and an unseen sadist who can remotely control his vehicle's heat, air conditioning, and stereo volume. (When William gets fed up with Eddie's profanity, he plays the same yodeling tune on repeat at full volume.) Yet what Locked more accurately resembles is a protracted execution from the Saw franchise with Hopkins as Jigsaw and Skarsgård as one of myriad hapless victims, though Eddie's punishment is so perversely inapt for the crime he's accused of – B&E … though really only B … – you spend no time thinking, “Eh, the dude kinda deserves what he gets.” Because we're aware of Eddie's dire financial situation and understand how much he loves his kid, and because the charismatic Skarsgård employs his shaky voice and popping eyes so empathetically, Yarovesky's and screenwriter Michael Arlen Ross' remake of 2019's Argentinian release 4x4 is something truly rare: a Saw with genuine emotional stakes and, in Skarsgård's Eddie, a protagonist genuinely worth rooting for.
This isn't to say that Hopkins' mellifluous nastiness isn't enjoyable in its own right, and there is some early schadenfreude kick in Eddie having his escape plans foiled and getting zapped with the seats' built-in tasers. (I would've loved to have seen the face of the dealership associate when that little feature was requested.) But while the actor is given some primo Bond-villain soliloquies that are delivered with impressive speed, Hopkins' vocal urgency ensures that William is never a joke. And when, in the movie's final third, the SUV is revealed to also be self-driving and we finally get to see the lunatic up close, we're reminded that Hopkins can convey more unsettling malice in one closeup of his eyeball than most performers can with their entire bodies.
Locked is little more than a shrewdly rendered B picture with unexpected visual wit, if a tad too much in terms of show-offy camera tricks. (Although that 360-degree pan shot near the start was solid, I'm not sure we needed to witness the circling four times in a row.) But beyond its exceptional leads, Locked also has electricity and momentum even when practically motionless, and occasional missteps such as the cruel inclusion of Sarah as a potential victim are forgiven thanks to the hefty supply of inspired fringe touches. It turns out that, after he was essentially taken hostage by the SUV, Eddie would've had a full bottle of water with him if, just a few minutes earlier, he hadn't shared it with a thirsty dog through a barely-cracked-open car window. Yeah, Eddie was looking to boost the car when he did it, but still … . What a kind gesture! Those simply hoping for a disreputable Hannibal Lecter v. Pennywise potboiler here might be shocked by how much they side with the clown.
