A Shock to the System

Based on Simon Brett’s novel, A Shock to the System follows business executive Graham Marshall (Michael Caine) as he discovers a flair for murder after spontaneously throwing a homeless person in front of a subway train. It’s a seemingly foolproof setup that’s employed to sporadically watchable yet mostly underwhelming effect by Jan Egleson, as the filmmaker, armed with Andrew Klavan’s screenplay, delivers a sluggish and distressingly momentum-free thriller that contains few, if any, elements worth embracing or getting excited about – with Caine’s predictably compelling performance standing, for the most part, as one of the picture’s only consistently engaging attributes. (It’s clear, as well, that A Shock to the System benefits from the efforts of an appreciatively strong supporting cast, with Will Patton’s minor role as a police detective certainly remaining an obvious highlight within the proceedings.) And although Egleson offers up a very small handful of stirring sequences, including (and especially) a fantastic scene wherein Graham loses his cool after being forced to share an office, A Shock to the System progresses into a decidedly (and disappointingly) anticlimactic third act that ultimately does cement its place as a misguided (and rather misbegotten) adaptation of Brett’s superior book.

** out of ****

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