Professional wrestler Jake Ridge (Charles Cottier) escapes from a local hospital where he's just been tested for a potentially fatal coronavirus strain, and reluctantly returns to his childhood home where he's forced to isolate himself for 21 days with no TV or internet. During that time, young doctor Emily (Kathryn Beck) visits daily to check up on him, and since she's his only company, they gradually get to know each other quite deeply. But not before he snaps from boredom and succumbs to cabin fever.
This 2016 Australian comedy was the brainchild of writers Kane Guglielmi and John Ratchford and of course, four years later it's proven eerily prescient. But that doesn't mean it's exactly engaging, resonant or imaginative. Under Guglielmi's direction, Cottier makes a fairly amiable and accurately tormented hero and Beck tries her best with a pretty by-the-numbers emotional support role. But it's aesthetically lazy even for a film with such a small budget and contained setting; there are no dolly or zoom shots or anything to more flashily explore the house's interior, even, and the soundtrack is bare-bones.
Its most frustrating flaw, however, for me is the increasingly predictable and cliched plotting. We eventually learn why Jake has returned to an empty house and the reasons for that feel like they were torn straight out of a John Hughes film, and Jake's relationship with Emily practically spoils itself, ultimately. Cooped Up is no thumps up of an effort.
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