A film filled with deplorable characters, absolutely none of them redeemable. A story about deception and fraud on a large scale, but also stealing and abusing the trust of the elderly when they are at their most venerable. Yet I Care a Lot is a film that is fascinating and enthralling and you can’t help watching it until the end, even though you cannot stand the leads in the film!
We know the world is full of fraudsters and crooks. But it is fascinating the lengths some people will go to make a buck and not a quick and easy buck at that.
I Care a Lot is a film about Marla (Rosamund Pike) who acts as the guardian of a number of elderly individuals, who happen to be sitting on small fortunes. Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) is one such individual who has a gorgeous home, filled with period furniture, has a small fortune in the bank and no friends or family, so we think. Marla becomes guardian of Jennifer and promptly puts her in a care facility, but little does Marla know that Roman (Peter Dinklage) does care for Jennifer and this is going to cause a lot of trouble for Marla, in a good way.
Written and directed by J Blakeson, this is a movie where you are disliking all the main characters, hoping for something redeeming but then you realize that there are people out there in the real world that make a career out of taking advantage of the elderly.
There are flaws in the legal and medical world and I Care a Lot highlights these failures that allow people to take custody of absolute strangers that they can exploit to their own financial benefit.
Dianne Wiest as Jennifer Peterson is absolutely delightful. She plays your run of the mill older lady, but there is a nasty twist that she plays beautifully.
Peter Dinklage as Roman, there is something dark and sinister about this character and Peter embraces every moment. There is a sense of discomfort and untrustworthiness watching the character unravel in front of you but it is also very humorous.
Rosamund Pike as the unbelievingly nasty Marla gets you enthralled in this very dark comedy. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this character and Rosamund Pike plays it perfectly. There is a coldness and total disconnect from compassion and humanity in this character and you cannot help but dislike her throughout the entire film.
Seeing Rosamund Pike win the Golden Globe for this performance planted the seed to watch this movie, as it isn’t something I’d normally watch.
I Care a Lot is a very dark comedy, that does a very clever job at mocking many of the industries that are institutions designed to help those in need. Through legal loopholes it allows the lonely and very wealthy to be exploited to the financial benefits of deplorable individuals who take great pleasure in other people’s pain. The characters in this film are despicable but it also makes it more enjoyable to watch as you just cannot believe there are people like this being portrayed on the screen and they will remind you of people you do know in real life.
I Care a Lot is currently available on Netflix.
