Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) has never been normal. As a young girl, the film’s efficient opening voiceover tells us, she struggled to manage her fury in the face of injustice. If a boy snatched her piece of cake or bullied her, Lindy would be quick to retaliate – shoving her peers’ head into desserts or hitting them with a bat. Her parents, tormented by their own issues, found her uncontrollable and eventually sent Lindy to a facility, where she began her life as a lab rat. She was prodded and probed, evaluated and tested. Her condition – aptly named intermittent explosive disorder – interested the scientists and researchers around her.

Fast forward a couple of decades and Lindy, now an adult, lives a somewhat normal life. She has – well, had – a job as a bouncer, regularly sees her psychiatrist, Dr Munchin (Stanley Tucci), has an apartment furnished with plastic cutlery and can control her anger with a specially made device that sends jolts of electricity through her body at the click of a button. Oh, and she’s even got a hot date with a nice, normal man named Justin (Jai Courtney).

Their first meeting ends before it really begins. Lindy loses her temper with the waitress and body slams the woman in the bathroom before bolting out of the restaurant. But Justin doesn’t seem to mind her erratic behaviour, and in fact, on their second date, tells her in an eye-roll-inducing way that he’s not afraid. Lindy, who’s spent most of her life being a loner, immediately takes to Justin.

The temporary euphoria comes to a sudden halt when police find Justin dead right before the couple’s third date – just one of several dramatic twists throughout this perplexing film. At the police station, Detectives Vicar (Bobby Cannavale) and Nevin (Laverne Cox) interrogate Lindy about Justin, and their questions lead to the realisation that she never really knew the man. That lack of familiarity doesn’t stop her from trying to find his murderer and avenge his death.

Jolt is not a terrible film, which is certainly not to say it’s good. Its over-reliance on gimmicks to elicit unearned viewer emotions often makes it feel cheap.

– Compilation