“Only here, as we are here, together, now and here, always you and I.”

From Locked Down.

Tired off the constant fighting and the unbearable distance between them, Linda (Anne Hathaway) finally decides to end her relationship with her husband, Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor)… right when the Coronavirus pandemic hits.  Unable to move out, Paxton is stuck in the house with his estranged wife for at two more weeks as England and the rest of the world goes stir-crazy.  When her boss tells her that she has to fire the employees in her department, Linda realizes how disfranchised she is with the company for which she works.  Linda becomes further aggravated with her job when her bosses (including Ben Stiller) tell her that she’ll have to oversee the packing-up of the company’s jewelry display at the legendary Harrods store.  Even though he was furloughed from work, Paxton’s boss, Malcolm (Ben Kingsley), begs him to come drive a delivery truck for him, because all the big stores in the West End want to transport their valuable collections to safety.  With his criminal record, Paxton doesn’t have the clearance to drive the expensive cargo, but since Malcolm is so short on drivers, he gives Paxton a fake name-Edgar Allen Poe-and badge with the clearance level to drive.  When Linda learns that Paxton’s last pick-up will be the Harris Diamond from Harrods, she knows that the security protocols she set up at the store will lead to a discovery of his record, so she steps in to help him keep his job.  However, when Linda learns that the Harris Diamond has been bought from the collection by a corrupt billionaire and is going to be sent for storage in a New York vault, she has the wild thought that she and Paxton could steal the diamond since she’s already helping get him past security.  As the ex-couple struggles with their choice about committing the crime of a lifetime, the stress of the lockdown only amplifies all their emotions.

This fictional sort-of crime comedy manages to feel very real with its setting in the global pandemic.  Hathaway and Ejiofor’s erratic, back and forth moral dilemma is often the funniest moments of the film.  Locked Down is an interesting story that is slow to start, but worth the wait for fans of heist movies.