The problem in my case was that the unclean shutdown of the VM had left behind a number of "lock" files in the filesystem. The error message says what specific lock file is causing the problem, though it does stop at the first lock it encounters. So if you fix one lock and then continue to get a similar message, check to see where the new lock that it's complaining about is.
I ended up having to track down 4 or 5 "*.lck" files scattered across a couple different locations in my filesystem. Deleting (or, if you're paranoid like me, moving to a new location) all of these lock files allowed the VM to reboot. It took a couple of tries for the reboot to actually take. As I mentioned, the VM is tempermental even under the best of circumstances.
Also note that there should be a "vmware.log" file that should also contain useful information about which lock file is causing the problem, and possibly any number of other issues that may be preventing the VM from starting. In my case this file was located in the same filesystem directory as the VM's primary virtual disk file ("*.vmdk").
Further information is available here:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=10051