MOVIE REVIEW : ‘A Shock to the System’ Boasts Comedic Flair, Deadly Charm

The British black comedy lives--in suburban New York. “A Shock to the System” (throughout San Diego County) has the same charm as the classic Alec Guinness comedies from the ‘50s. And, like those films, it stars a consummate professional at the peak of his comedic flair.

As Graham Marshall, the marketing executive who turns murderous when he’s passed up for promotion, Michael Caine has such a chuckling rapport with the audience that we smile in collusion the first time he speaks, in a voice-over narration. He turns the ghastliness of the film’s premise into dry wit. We become his accomplices.

When Graham is turned down to be the head of marketing development in favor of a sleek upstart (Peter Riegert), the first casualty is his suburban harridan wife Leslie (Swoosie Kurtz), who blames him for failing to honor her upward mobility. She’s a nouveau riche screecher who is forever putting her overworked hubbie in hock.

Beneath Graham’s beleagueredness, we can sense the risible revenger; his many years in stir at the agency have given him the virtue of patience--he savors his vengeance. As he lops off the impediments to his success, we eagerly await his next quarry.

We’re eager despite the fact that, aside from the performers, who also include Elizabeth McGovern and John McMartin, the film is too pokily paced. This was occasionally true of the Guinness comedies too, but their pokiness at least seemed deliberate. The inch-by-inch pace was part of their humor, as if, no matter how nutsoid the situations, British decorum reigned. The combination of Caine’s Britishness and his WASPy suburban home base keeps “A Shock to the System” allied to its antecedents, but when the film shifts to Manhattan’s high-rise corporate fast track, things get sluggish.

The director, Jan Egleson, has directed a number of sensitive television features, most notably “The Dark End of the Street,” and he has a rare gift for employing documentary naturalism in fictional settings. It’s not a gift that always holds him in good stead here. Andrew Klavan’s script, based on Simon Brett’s novel, requires a more tart and askew treatment. Naturalism, in this context, is a comedy dampener.

The joke in the material, of course, is that the film’s cut-throat boardroom politics turn out to be literally cut-throat. Despite the naturalism, the boardroom scenes still represent some of the best modern high-stakes business satire in the movies. Peter Riegert has down pat the ruthless smoothness of his sharky upstart; his every line of dialogue is in corporate code--a camouflage for his not-so-hidden agenda.

Graham’s capitulation to this mock-affable brat is also camouflaged in its own code. When, accompanied by his wide-eyed wife, he weekends at the new boss’ suburban sprawl, his pained smiles, his dutiful lighting of the proffered cigar, carry a subversive charge. We know Graham is accumulating his hurts for the inevitable pay-back.

Michael Caine’s affability in this role isn’t benign. In his most murderous moments there’s a chilling cruelty at work. Caine has the technique and the charm to coast on his skills, but, even though his movies are not infrequently routine, he rarely is. “A Shock to the System” (rated R) may be lightweight, but it’s connected to Caine’s scary cameo as the ultra-sleazy crime lord in “Mona Lisa.” Audiences who were accustomed to an accommodating, companionable Caine in that film were brought up short. The performance was a demonstration of his willingness to sour his geniality for the greater good.

In “A Shock to the System,” Caine must have welcomed the opportunity to rework the same killing terrain but from a loopier angle. What’s remarkable is that you come away from the movie laughing at Graham’s murderous indiscretions and yet you’re frightened by them too. Caine makes you taste the ashes in this black comedy.

‘A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM’

A Corsair Pictures release. Executive producer Leslie Morgan. Producer Patrick McCormick. Director Jan Egleson. Screenplay Andrew Klavan, based on Simon Brett’s novel. Cinematography Paul Goldsmith. Music Gary Chang. Production design Howard Cummings. Costumes John Dunn. Film editor Peter C. Frank. With Michael Caine, Peter Riegert, Elizabeth McGovern, Swoosie Kurtz, Will Patton.

Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (no one under 17 admitted without parent or adult guardian).