Jolt
Director: Tanya Wexler
Writer: Scott Wascha
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Jai Courtney, Stanley Tucci, Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Constantine Gregory, Ori Pfeffer, David Bradley, Susan Sarandon
Seen on: 12.4.2023

Plot:
Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) has an impulse control issue. If she isn’t careful, she will turn murderous – and as a bouncer, she has too many opportunities for violence anyway. Together with her therapist Dr Munchin (Stanley Tucci), Lindy has found a solution, though: she wears a vest that delivers electric shocks whenever she feels that she is about to lose control. With the assurance of the vest and Munchin’s encouragement, Lindy even tries to go on a date with Justin (Jai Cortney). To her surprise, she even likes Justin. But he, unfortunately, is murdered just after they got close, setting Lindy off on a bit of a rampage.

Jolt is okay. The cast is good, the fights are nice, the premise stands by its being ridiculous. But it does little with those good ingredients and tells an ultimately rather predictable story.

Given its cast, I was quite surprised that I had heard literally nothing about the film until it popped up in my recommendations. Having seen it now, I understand a little better. Although the film goes about things in the right spirit, with lots of neon lights and over the top action, neither the story, nor the characters can really keep up with this spirit.

That the characters remain flat isn’t really the fault of the cast. Beckinsale does her best, but Lindy would have needed a little more grounding as a person in the script to become more than her issues. Tucci, too, is offered little to nothing to work with by the script. Cox and Cannavale as a police duo get the right balance, though, and their short appearances are some of the best scenes in the film.

The story works up to a twist that is, unfortunately, too predictable to be worth all that work. Maybe playing things straight and not trying to surprise the audience (just Lindy) would have given the film more tension and a bit of an edge – because that is lacking, leaving us outside of the story instead of pulling us in.

I have definitely seen worse films than Jolt. It is not a bad watch, despite its flaws. But if you don’t happen to catch it, you aren’t missing much, either. I’m pretty sure it could have been more with a few tweaks – and there is always something a little sad about missed opportunities like this.

Summarizing: after debating whether I should make an electricity pun here, I am going with: doesn’t sizzle.