A Shock to the System

Graham Marshall has worked at an advertising agency for many years. He expects a promotion and it goes to someone much younger. His new boss explains how he should be working. Things are no better at home; his wife spends constantly and looks down on him. One evening he argues with a beggar at a subway station and the man falls onto the tracks and dies. Nobody sees anything. Graham sleeps well that night. From then on he begins solving his problems the same way. Jan Egleson directs. Michael Caine plays Graham; Elizabeth McGovern and Peter Riegert are in the cast. The source is Simon Brett's novel. The form is black humour; the killings are shown coldly and the character feels no guilt. What the film is interested in is corporate life; the narrative builds Graham not as a monster but as someone applying the logic of the system to the end. The narration comes in the character's own voice and what he says is reasonable in a way meant to disturb the viewer. The production belongs to the wave of criticism of the business world at the end of the eighties and carries references to the stock market culture of the time. Michael Caine's playing is measured and the character never raises his voice. The ending does not punish, and that choice is the narrative's hardest side. Who it is for: viewers who like black comedy and Michael Caine. Who it is not for: the register is cold, attachment to the character is difficult, and the ending is morally uncomfortable.