Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 21, 1990 TAG: 9004210428
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Evening Sun
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This one is what you would call a dark comedy, a film in which death and attendant tragedy are treated rather lightly.
Michael Caine stars. At 58, he may be a little too old to be playing a role of this sort, but he always manages, enough to make us believe in him.
In "A Shock to the System," he is an advertising executive who is confident that he will receive a promotion. When the promotion is given to a rival, Graham Marshall (Caine) does what others in his situation might only fantasize.
He kills. First, he pushes a beggar to his death under a subway train. The man is no threat to him professionally, but he is aggressive and belligerent. The death, in this instance, is more accident than murder, but Marshall is excited by the experience.
His appetite for murder whetted, he decides on his next victim, his wife. She's not a bad sort. She is, however, a nag. She is always talking about the meagerness of her husband's salary, but she never offers to add to the family fortune by going to work.
When Marshall has had enough, he gets rid of the woman through bloodless trickery. This is no "Friday the 13th" movie. There is no butchery here. Marshall simply rigs a basement lighting fixture, and when his wife tries to turn it on, turns herself off.
Now the man is on a roll. Next on his extermination list is his much younger rival, an arrogant individual who has Marshall light his cigarettes for him once he has secured the higher position.
You know he doesn't have long to live, and when he goes, another rival goes along with him. You can't, however, get away with murder that easily, so a detective begins to close in on the executive killer. Also among the suspicious is a junior executive, played by Elizabeth McGovern. First she loves them, then fears him.
The ending to "A Shock to the System" is not as satisfying as the rest of the film. The gentleman killer leaves an ever-widening wake of evidence, and the film would have worked much better with an "All About Eve" conclusion. Beyond this, however, the movie makes it as dark comedy. It may not be up there with "Kind Hearts and Coronets," but it does succeed.
Caine gives the role of the executive all it needs. His Englishness is easily explained, and when he becomes enraged, he is something to see. McGovern is easy to watch, but she always is. Well, no. Let's take that back. She doesn't look all that good in "A Handmaid's Tale," but no one looks good in that.
Swoozie Kurtz is the executive's wife, Peter Riegert is the younger man who gets the job Marshall had expected, and John McMartin is the executive who says that if he is forced to retire, he will die within the week.
"A Shock to the System" will be particularly pleasing to those people who have been stepped on by others in the pursuit of their careers. This could be their dreams come true. The movie, for some, will serve as vicarious wish fulfillment.
Two stars.
"A Shock to the System" A Corsair Picture's release showing at Towers Theater (345-5519). Rated R.
by CNB