91 min | R | July 23, 2021 | Amazon Studios
Lindy carries a rare disorder that drowns her in rage, so she wears a vest of electrodes and shocks herself calm. When the one man who steadies her turns up dead, she stops shocking and starts swinging. The premise has voltage and the movie keeps shorting out.
Lindy lives with a neurological condition that floods her with murderous rage at the smallest provocation. She manages it by wearing a vest wired with electrodes and jolting herself before the impulse wins. A therapist keeps her medicated and monitored. A first date with an accountant named Justin gives her a reason to try restraint. The film wants to be a revenge thriller about a woman weaponizing the rage that society tells women to swallow. The concept carries more charge than the execution.
Kate Beckinsale plays Lindy with physical commitment and a sneer that never softens. She throws punches, absorbs them, and sells the deadpan one-liners between the violence. Stanley Tucci plays Dr. Ivan Munchin, her therapist, with a bemused detachment that gives the early scenes their best rhythm. Jai Courtney plays Justin, the accountant who draws her out, with a warmth the script discards too fast. Bobby Cannavale and Laverne Cox play Detectives Vicars and Nevin as a mismatched pair chasing Lindy through her body count. Cox lands the dry comic beats and Cannavale gets stuck playing straight man.
Tanya Wexler directs after a career in quieter dramas, and the pivot to violent comedy shows in the uneven rhythm. The fight scenes get chopped into quick cuts that hide more than they reveal. Beckinsale trains hard for the physicality and the editing buries it. Scott Wascha’s script stacks quips where it needs stakes. The plot shoves Lindy from one set piece to the next without building the dread that would make her rage land. The London settings glow in cold neon that flatters the action and never establishes a real world underneath.
The film has a sharp idea and a star willing to carry it. It mistakes attitude for momentum and one-liners for character. Lindy deserves a story that takes her condition seriously enough to make the violence mean something. Wexler delivers a sleek package that runs on pure adrenaline. The film forgets to give the audience a reason to care who survives. The buzz fades before the credits roll.