A Shock to the System (1990)

Admirable film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This wasn't a bad movie overall and while I didn't full in love it I would revisit it again. The storyline was simple and easy to follow and that simpleness was put to shame by having Caine as the lead actor, putting on a performance that made the movie better, just as you would expect.

I'm glad to say there's always someone who breaks the system. In this case, the man is Jan Engleson. Primarily a TV director, Mr Engleson has made only four movies. This is the third. Unlike his TV compatriots, however, Engleson has broken free of all the usual boring, camera-nailed-to-the-floor, close-up after close-up set-ups. Instead, he has opted for a very fluid visual style, with lots of most effectively dramatic but exceedingly rapid tracks through what look like real New York office sets. (They're rather spacious in width but rather cramped in height). Into this somewhat disturbing milieu, Engleson has cast a first-rate string of players, led by Sir Michael Caine as the deliverer of the shock (you can't take your eyes off him – a fascinating performance), Elizabeth McGovern as his unwitting accomplice, and Swoosie Kurtz as the wife who gets in his way. It all comes to a delightfully ironic conclusion. (Available on an excellent – if rather poorly promoted – DVD. I picked mine up in the $2 bin).

Almost effortlessly accomplished, A Shock to the System absolutely exudes confidence and remains a minor - if largely still unknown - classic. Caine is on real form as the tale's moral black hole, conjuring a performance of occasionally genuine surprise (witness Caine's hilarious reaction to his wife's death, or his utter bewilderment/rage over being passed over for promotion).With Gary Chang's dexterous score and the production's nimble, well-framed cinematography, it's one of those rare films that allows you to absolutely relax, confident that you are in good hands. A similar case could be made for Liliana Cavani's superb Ripley's Game which is charted by an equally immoral (but again highly satisfying) compass.

(There are Spoilers) When senior executive Graham Marshall, Michael Caine, was passed over for a promotion at the Wall Street advertisement firm Gibbs for this young arrogant and back-stabbing butt-kisser Robert Benham, Peter Riegert, his whole world collapsed around him. Being told by everyone at the firm, including Benham, that it was a given that he'll get the promotion Graham felt that he was screwed because he's not the team player that Benham is not because he wasn't fit for the job. This had Graham in a very ugly mood as he went down to the Fulton Street subway station on his way home after work. Being accosted by this panhandling homeless man, Milce Cicchett, who wouldn't take no for an answer Graham in a fit of anger pushed the annoying man away and before he knew it he fell on the tracks and was overran and killed by a passing subway train.Quickly fleeing the subway station and sweating bullets Graham takes a taxi to Grand Central in order to get his ride, via Metro North, home in the suburbs. It's then when realizing that he got away with murder,or in this case homicide, Graham suddenly feels that he tapped into some kind of mother-load of power that he never knew existed, or that he had. Graham feeling invincible will kill and kill and kill again without any fear of getting caught and his victims would be the people whom he feels have been holding him back from achieving that greatness that has been eluding him over the years; his annoying and pesky wife Leslie, Swoosie Kurtz, and his fellow employees Benham and his computer crazed and very disrespectful, towards him, sidekick Henry Park, Philip Moon.Graham even though he murders some half dozen persons in the movie is far too clever to get himself caught by leaving any evidence connecting him to his crimes. The person in charge of the police investigating him Lt. Laker, Will Patton, is so frustrated in getting Graham to admit his crimes that he just about gives up before the movie is half over. Let. Laker is left t doing an imitation Let. Columbo act as he helplessly bumbles his way through the remainder of the film.After offing his pain in the a** wife Leslie, by electrocuting her, Graham strikes up a hot and heavy affair with his fellow Gibbs employee Stella Anderson, Elizabeth McGovern. Later Graham makes an almost fatal mistake in his effort to implicate his now very depressed and suicidal friend George Brewster, John McMartain, in a double murder of Benham & Park,that he committed. Graham feeling that Brewster will never live long enough to know or care that he's a suspect in their deaths. It turned that Graham was right as Brewster, who was forced to retired from Gibbs, gulped down a bottle of sleeping pills as he waited for his train home in Grand Central Station and fell asleep forever.****SPOILER ALERT***Stella got a hold of a lighter that can connect Graham to Benham & Parks, who were blown to pieces on Benham pleasure boat, murders. Graham with his new found power of persuasion got a numb and almost hypnotized Stella to give the lighter back to him and in the end, with another murder under his belt, Graham literately got away with murder. Graham son became the head honcho at Gibbs something that was well beyond his reach when he was just a garden verity god-fearing and law abiding citizen.It's hard to like this movie since it's hero Graham Marshall is nothing but a cold blooded killer who has absolutely no remorse in the crimes that he commits. It's even a bit too much to classify "A Shock to the System" a black comedy since there's nothing at all funny in what Graham does and the tragic suicide of his friend George being shown as if it was funny would shock anyones system watching it in how both callous and heartless, and not at all funny, it came across. The only reason for watching the film is the very good acting of both Michael Caine, who narrates most of the movie in the third person, and Elizabeth McGovern who was the most likable and feeling person in the movie.