A Shock to the System, 1990.
Directed by Jan Egleson.
Starring Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Will Patton, Peter Riegert, Jenny Wright, Barbara Baxley, and Swoosie Kurtz.
SYNOPSIS:
After being electrocuted whilst trying to fix a light, a middle-aged executive gets some ideas about how to get the things he wants in life, including a promotion.
A Shock to the System was originally released in 1990, a period when Michael Caine was making a lot of movies, and not all of them were great but he had bills to pay at the time so turning down work wasn’t much of an option, hence why we got him popping up in the likes of Jaws: The Revenge and Blame It On Rio, a movie with subject matter that was questionable at the time and in 2024 seems borderline illegal. Nevertheless, Caine was always a joy to watch in this period, elevating a lot of the material he was given, and A Shock to the System was one of the diamonds to be found amongst the cinematic turds, so much so that 101 Films are putting it out for its UK Blu-ray debut.
Caine plays Graham Marshall, a middle-aged executive working for a huge marketing corporation and who is hoping to be promoted to the head of department. Graham is well liked by everybody and thinks the promotion is in the bag – as does his wife Leslie (Swoosie Kurtz), who is spending rather a lot and running up some debts – but he is passed over in favour of Robert Benham (Peter Riegert), a younger, more dynamic force in the office.
However, things change after Graham receives a mild electric shock when changing a light bulb, and the normally mild-mannered office executive starts to get some ideas about how to fix the problems in his life, starting with his nagging wife.
A black comedy that could have tipped either way into dark thriller or total farce, A Shock to the System works mainly down to Michael Caine and his affable screen presence, because we have to like Graham Marshall when he is being put-upon so we can cheer for him when he begins his revenge, but Caine’s likeable charm is even more powerful when he is being, for want of a better word, evil.
Like most revenge capers, there is a dogged detective trying to figure out what is going on, and in this case we get Will Patton – who has weird hair and looks like the mutant love-child of Jim Carrey and Chevy Chase – as Lieutenant Laker, a Columbo-esque gumshoe who seems to figure out what is going on pretty quickly, but Graham Marshall is aware of this and manages to keep Laker at bay, although that doesn’t stop him turning up at awkward moments and being a pain to everybody involved.
In a movie where we should be on the side of the cops – and by extension, law and order – Patton’s knowingly odd performance means we never really warm to Laker as a character, and when pitched against Marshall and his dastardly deeds, it is very easy to be on the side of the criminal and his morally abhorrent behaviour, which then brings up questions about what behaviour we, as law-abiding citizens, would tolerate for what we see as justifiable (although that might be stretching it).
With an intensely agreeable lead performance from Michael Caine and a strong supporting cast, you do tend to overlook the plot holes that, in a more tonally serious thriller, would make you stop and think a bit harder about consequences for certain actions, but to think about it any harder than what the filmmakers are asking would do a disservice to the movie’s main appeal, and that is that it is so entertaining. Pre-dating Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho by a year, A Shock to the System thumbs its nose at corporate greed in a similar fashion, but with a more straightforward narrative that, when combined with Michael Caine’s engaging presence and more accessible gallows humour, makes it a much more palatable viewing experience than that book’s more infamous movie adaptation.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
