Locked In

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.

With her mom in a coma, a young woman named Lina tries to come to terms with the events leading up to it, while her nurse tries to uncover the mysties surrounding the strange injuries to her body. I'd say this is a film that gets better the more you watch through it. I did feel however Anna fris seemed our of place. The nurse character iaent really part of the story and doesn't do anything to make it better but I like her as an actress so it's still nice seeing her. I feel bad for Jensen as she can't move her mouth fully anymore. I thought the mystery element was good though and if it were more gritty it could be even better.

Movie starts slow and takes its time to set out background and character relationships. Expect to be less engaged until the midway point. From there, the movie picks up its pace and the viewer can expect to question what's going on until the end of the film. Who is the victim? Who put this woman in the hospital? Is the woman in the hospital not as helpless as she seems? What is up with Lina? Well this nurse is about to find it all out, so pay attention.

I'm landing on a 6 for this one because it's good and keeps you guessing. A 7 and above needs to be excellent++ and this one falls short just slightly but still worth the watch.

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.