Now I know as well as you that exams have begun for some of us and is fast approaching for others. This can in fact be the biggest reason for you to see the movie: MOTIVATION. We fail to achieve our goals most times because we do not have an inner, strong motivation to succeed. Our motivation must be strong enough as a matter of life and death, nay a do-or-die, go-hard-or-go-home something.

The title Jolt is particularly fascinating especially when we think about the power of arts and imagination to grant us among others some therapeutic escape or momentary jolt from the real world. This film, directed by Tanya Wexler, can jolt you to find a strong motivation to do life big or ask for more. And it is especial that you see the movie if you have ever had to wonder what is the equivalent of normal in the very sense that makes the equivalent of ordinary be extraordinary.

Have you ever thought about why everyone wants to be extraordinary and not abnormal? The first question posed by the voice of the woman narrating the film’s story reads, “What makes a person extraordinary?” She adds, “Everyone wants to be normal, no one wants to be ordinary.” Think about that. Jolt will help you to redefine what is normal. The ‘disorder’ of Lindy (Kate Beckinsale) will challenge your perception of normalcy, making you exclaim, “And who the heck don’t have their own demons!” (Assignments besides being a pain in the neck could transmogrify into demons that won’t let you sleep sometimes, yunno?) And the bad things people do that make Lindy lose herself from a very young age to erase are subject to debate. Again, what is good in a context may be bad in another.

Does love truly heal all things? It all happens so fast: Justin (Jai Courtney) becomes Lindy’s only beloved in the world after two dates. His deep voice would later echo in her mind: ‘[The electrode-lined vest Lindy wears and her IED in general] is not a big deal.’ If that condition is a small deal, what in the world is a big deal again? Makes me conclude that there are many subjective ‘deals’ in this world than we know or will ever know of.

How can anyone explain how she is healed through ‘love’ and hurt again through ‘love’? You will easily find that love, whatever that is, makes us vulnerable and ‘human’ by healing and hurting alike, as best captured by Sheeran in Supermarket Flowers: “a heart that’s broke is a heart that has been loved.” What is her home could have given Lindy love if indeed home is where you are loved? Maybe her mom’s sleeping pills or her dad’s angry stupor? The point is we must never underestimate the influence of our family background, nay our own selves.

Lindy’s condition, IED (find out), also stirs us to consider if anger may be positively channeled, in the right direction. I am certain you will agree with me that you may not get some tasks done if you don’t get angry with that lazy, procrastinating part of you and with your situation enough to make a change. Watching Jolt will lead you to ask if there could be any other unknown disorder that forces one to live alone and not safely among people.

Beyond being the rapid, heartbeat-thumping and electricity-crackling story of a bouncer who, after having tried meditation, yoga, medications, and extreme sports, resorts to shocking herself back to normalcy at intervals with an electrode-lined vest to keep herself from snapping (becoming homicidal from anger management issues), Jolt tells the story of a ‘screwed’ somebody who would rather hurt herself than somebody else. Jolt is a reminder in motion pictures of our capacity to run faster when we find ourselves in some hot pursuit. Little wonder we find Lindy experiencing a jolt from being the bereaved to a suspect in the twinkling of an eye: for the most part of the movie, Detectives Vicars and Nevin, a rather eccentric pair of partners, are on her trails.

To be totally healed of IED, Lindy has only to become exposed to the loss of someone she loved, and that became her biggest motivation to hurt people (you have no idea how powerfully people and events can inspire you to succeed in an endeavour), as that is her own way of healing. Only now, Lindy has to hurt the ‘bad’ people? Again, who are ‘bad’ people? 

I bet you want to make sense of all these knots in Jolt the movie. Then, you are ready to find out how a bloodied, strong-willed Lindy, in the course of her revenge mission, confronts the ‘dead’ demoniac Justin, whom she would never have thought in her wildest imagination to be her worst enemy. Yet in some ways, he is the source of her healing, not without first being the source of her pain though. After all, Lindy’s doctor, Munchin (Stanley Tucci) may even be deemed the low-lying devil in this story. There is also the nominal villain, Gareth Fizel (David Bradley), ‘an asset that became a liability’ in Justin’s words….    

Really, I could go on and on and on about the film story but the most powerful message from the movie is summed up in the last words of the mysterious woman (Susan Sarandon) who showed up in the final scene:

 “.… You spent years being forced to repress your anger…. But now…you have seen how powerful you can be when you embrace your rage*…. You really think you’d be happy, living without a purpose? …. Humans, are the most powerful, undetectable weapon.”

Weapons we are, in the hands of our motivation, which may sometimes be unknown, but mostly put to good use when known. What is your motivation, again?

It’s amazing what your rage can do to you or make you do. The impossible is the least you can do with your rage? Now, what is your passion? Might not be a 4-page movie ‘review’…. Anyways, (re)discover your motivation and passion, and life will never happen to you.

Guess what movie is next?

*rage here means ‘a vehement desire or passion’.

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