Encierro

I had my hopes up when I saw this film was on the number one spot at my coutrys Netflix chart this week. I really like Famke Jansen, but why did she have to be apart of this production? With her charisma there should be better roles for her. She is too talented for this type of conveyer belt productions. The film in itself looks good, but it feels more like a long music video. The idea for the story is great, but it doesn't unfortunately take off. Boring and predictable story. Even the genre of Locked In should mystery, by it is impossible to find that. Maybe the mystery is why was this even done in first place.

Locked In is generically a modern Gothic story. British, manor, orphans, illness, love affairs, duplicitous characters, plots within plots, etc. All of that, the movie does well.

Do we need another Gothic mystery of orphaned child becoming entwined with a decaying family and its manor? Probably not. Do the actors move past the 2 dimensional nature of their characters? Decidedly no. Does the story line bring anything new or ingenious to the story? A resounding no.

Part of the issue I see is that the main character is the young orphaned girl and her movement into this family and the machinations of the plot. She's not that interesting of a character. And the narrow focus that the film takes toward her shuts out the other characters from being able to provide much richness to the story.

This harkens to the great movie and story of Rebbeca in many ways. But that film allowed other characters room to play, and the uncertainty of motivations and conniving increased the sense of tension and dread. As a copy or comparison of that, this films decidedly missed the mark. As a display of a Gothic story, it does all right.

Nurse Nicky Mackenzie (Anna Friel) gets a new patient, Katherine (Famke Janssen) who is unable to communicate due to her injuries. She starts talking to Katherine's visitor Lina (Rose Williams). 13 years earlier after the death of Lina's mother, Katherine had become her guardian. At the time, Katherine was a rich and famous Hollywood actress. Her son Jamie suffers from periodic seizures. 3 years earlier, Lina is marrying Jamie (Finn Cole). Dr. Robert Lawrence (Alex Hassell) is treating Jamie.

This feels more like an old timey soapy romance melodrama mystery. I like all these actors. I am slightly intrigued with their characters. I would change one thing for sure. Nicky Mackenzie should be a cop investigating Katherine's incident. As a nurse, she adds no tension to the story. As a cop, she could uncover some sort of foul play and the audience would be more invested in the mystery.

Former actress and Hollywood star Katherine wakes from a coma, but is unable to communicate, helped by Nurse Nicky Mackenzie, who tries to unlock the causes of her injury, only her daughter in law seems to have the answers.

Once again, it's curse of number one on Netflix, a movie that on paper should have been very good, but ultimately disappoints.

It's like one of those plush, but dodgy 1980's afternoon movies, if only Katherine had been given a Range Rover, Golden retrievers, a perm, spritz of Fidji, and a box of Terry's All Gold.

A tale of hidden passions, vengeance, loathing and dark secrets, it's hard to care for a single one of them, they're all awful people.

I didn't care for the storyline, or the over the top music, it all jars, it's so clunky.

Famke Janssen does a good job as Katherine, she plays the Lady or The Manor very well, but ultimately she is wasted, she's better than this.

What I want to know, why is this number one, who's actually watching this and enjoying it?

Poor, 5/10.

The premise of a woman who can't communicate after an accident but still finds a way to let her nurse know that someone tried to kill her starts off interesting. But let me save you your time: this movie is bad and will add nothing but sorrow to your life.

ALL the characters are annoying and make the dumbest decisions possible every single time. I would explain with examples, but then my review would be classified as containing spoilers and I wouldn't be able to save people that haven't yet wasted their time with this.

It's an infuriating, uninspired, very predictable movie. Rating it a 3 is being generous.