Locked In
Listless thriller has gun violence, smoking, language.
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Locked In
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Locked In is an action thriller about a mom (Mena Suvari) trying to protect her teen daughter from diamond thieves in a high-tech storage facility. Violence is the biggest issue, with lots of guns/shooting, knives/stabbing, deaths, and blood spatters (and trails and pools). Women are in peril and get hit, choked, threatened, and killed. A man insinuates that women can pay their rent via sexual favors, and a man asks a teen girl whether she's a virgin. Frequent language includes several uses of "f--k," "s--t," and many other words. A teen smokes cigarettes, as does an adult. Spoken dialogue includes mention of how a character was once an "addict" and a "junkie."
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What's the Story?
In LOCKED IN, Maggie (Mena Suvari) is struggling to get by, working in a high-tech storage facility and living in a rundown hotel with her teen daughter, Tarin (Jasper Polish). One day Maggie discovers a secret stash of cash in the office of her boss, Lee (Bruno Bichir). Maggie decides to steal some of it to help pay her overdue rent and drives to the facility with Tarin. She changes her mind once she gets there, but unfortunately, two rough men -- Ross (Manny Perez) and Mel (Jeff Fahey) -- also show up looking for a bag of stolen diamonds. In the process, they murder Lee. Maggie must keep her wits sharp in order to protect Tarin and get both of them out of there alive.
Is It Any Good?
It makes good use of its enclosed location, but this tough action/thriller never quite manages to get moving, largely thanks to too many thin characters and all-too-familiar story elements. The feature writing and directing debut of Carlos V. Gutierrez, Locked In's use of the storage facility setting is inspired, with its endless hallways, mysterious steel doors, and surveillance cameras. That said, the movie ends up using these things more to keep viewers off-balance than as a particularly clever use of space. Even with the movie coming in at a tight 90 minutes, it still feels sluggish.
Perhaps that's because the characters are hard to care about. Maggie comes with tons of backstory -- she's a former thief and addict who was "rescued" by a loving husband and then found religion -- and yet she still feels either "on" or "off." She's either pessimistic and weary or clever and deceptive. Not to mention that her claustrophobia, set up in the movie's opening, is never really used for anything. The villains all come across as flat and quite typical; a "twist" involving one of them is terribly obvious and far from a surprise. Polish (the daughter of filmmaker Michael Polish) is the only one who feels alive; she's a precocious teen who's not in the least intimidated. It's too bad the rest of Locked In couldn't have tapped into that energy.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Locked In's violence. How did it make you feel? How much is directed at women? What impact does that have on how it affects you?
Are the women in the movie admirable? Do you consider them role models? Why, or why not?
How is faith depicted in the movie? How is faith used (or not used) to solve Maggie's dilemma?
How is cigarette smoking depicted? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?
What does the movie have to say about economic struggles in the United States? What's the solution to Maggie's problem? Is it realistic?
Movie Details
- In theaters: May 7, 2021
- On DVD or streaming: May 7, 2021
- Cast: Mena Suvari, Costas Mandylor, Jeff Fahey
- Director: Carlos V. Gutierrez
- Studio: Saban Films
- Genre: Thriller
- Run time: 90 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: violence, and language throughout
- Last updated: October 8, 2022
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