#damianyoung

I'm suspecting dark comedies aren’t my thing. I just have too much difficulty realizing I’m supposed to laugh and I wind up “seeing” a different movie than intended. In I Care a Lot, this only matters so much. The performances are uniformly excellent. Rosamund Pike crafts a character so loathsome you keep watching solely in the hopes that she’ll wind up mauled to death by a mechanical bear while on fire. This plot’s got the kind of twists and turns that make you squirm with uncertainty.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) conspires with doctors and retirement homes to place well-off seniors under her guardianship so she can leech all their assets. While exploiting wealthy retiree Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), she suddenly receives a visit from a lawyer (Chris Messina) who offers a suitcase of money to stop. When Marla asks for more, she learns the sweet old lady has someone powerful looking out for her.

The way Marla manipulates the system and takes advantage of others is sickening. If only she were dumb there’d be a chance of her getting caught - but she isn’t. Her scam is methodical, her allies as unscrupulous as her. The people she’s robbing are rendered utterly powerless. At first, you’re so appalled you keep watching to ensure your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Only in a capitalist’s world could anyone be so evil, so adept at manipulation, have a dedicated girlfriend (Eiza González), a thriving business, and still want more.

For a while, you think the old lady will find some leverage on Marla, that this will be a commentary on the way we discard the elderly… but it isn’t. This is a different kind of thriller. Peter Dinklage (always wonderful) plays the antagonist. You almost - almost - feel sorry for Marla when you think about what's coming her way.

The flaws with the picture comes from writer/director J Blakeson - whose skills have improved so much since his 2016 film The 5th Wave you’d never guess they were helmed by the same person. He loves Marla and forces this tale to go a certain way. Maybe it’s a testament to Peter Dinklage’s charm or to Pike’s ability to appall, but you never think of them as equally deserving of the incoming hurt. I Care a Lot is dragged kicking and screaming to its logical conclusion, which makes you almost as uneasy as seeing a movie mid-pandemic about doctors and caretakers showing no concern for the elderly. Anywhere else, these faux-pas would be deadly, which illustrates how good this movie can get when it’s good.

I Care a Lot gets going and never looks back. Audiences will be kept on their toes until they're left behind during the conclusion. There are great bits of dialogue, shirt-drenching tension throughout, and the performances are excellent. I don’t know if you’ll love the movie or be unable to find anything redeeming in Rosamund Pike’s character but for her alone, it's worth seeing. (March 17, 2021)