#jblakeson

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)

Here we go again, discussing whether or not a Netflix original film can stand up to the same level of judgement that your standard box office fare does.  This week’s contestant looks like it may have what it takes to stand up to the scrutiny, which is definitely a good sign for Netflix as a production house and tastemaker.  The film is question is the J Blakeson film I Care a Lot, which looks like another winner for leading lady Rosamund Pike.

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a slick talking opportunist who makes a living by taking over the guardianship of elderly people and draining them of their finances and valuables.  With the help of her assistant Fran (Eiza González), Dr. Karen Amos (Alicia Witt), Judge Lomax (Isaiah Whitlock Jr.) and a handful of others, Marla pulls the trigger on what feels like the whale of all whales : an elderly woman named Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) who seemingly has no immediate family and plenty of wealth tied to her name.  Unbeknownst to Marla, however, her actions raise the ire of Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage), a ruthless gangster with an endless network of resources and a burning desire to have his property returned to him.  Lunyov and his associates apply pressure to Marla, but the resulting plays for power turn out much more difficult than either side intended or imagined.

On the page, the exploitation of the elderly may not seem like the fodder that film dreams are made of, but framing this with the construct of a capitalist cult infuses a sinister uniqueness into the story.  The sheer vastness of parties involved in the hustle, including judges, elderly care, medical professionals, realtors and even fences is mind-blowing, but wholly believable based on the reality that news media presents us with on a daily basis.  The evil element comes in the form of legislative logistics and red tape in a manner that truly illustrates how the pen is mightier than the sword in some cases.  A bit of the King Midas element is sprinkled on top of everything, which leads Marla Grayson right down a self-sustained path towards destruction simply because she doesn’t know when enough is enough, or when a threat is a legitimate one rather than a hurdle.

Having a film absent of good guys that isn’t centered around cars, guns or war is a positive stroke, as it tosses out the need for justification of actions while setting up the viewer for an absence of expectations.  This absence of expectations creates some of the freshest tension I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, as the lack of scruples across the board makes any action (and subsequent reaction) fair game.  The chess of human lives escalates rapidly as the story unfolds, quickly moving from threats of manipulative force into the realm where human lives are the cost of bad business.  The direct connections made between the traditional criminal underworld and the paper-pushing criminal eradicate any fraction of right in the “right and wrong” debate that often arises when attempts to justify crimes are made.

The general dark nature of the film is offset by a multitude of production aspects that radiate, giving the story a sense of energy and momentum.  For starters, the overall warm color timing and film grain look, along with a 1970’s style title card, give the film an exploitation look and feel that makes it hard to pinpoint the time in which the story takes place.  The style choices, mainly hair and wardrobe, further the vagueness of the setting, while also standing as a statement on how the bad guys are sometimes hard to pinpoint strictly off looks.  All of this warmness is offset by the heavily synthesizer-driven score, which builds tension and unease even when the score is high tempo.  The cinematography is kinetic without being overly flashy, and in tandem with the aforementioned warmness, creates a visual unease that is as slippery as the main players in the game.

Rosamund Pike gets to flex the tough guy role in a way that many women are not given the opportunity to do in film, and she navigates those waters with all the aplomb of a seasoned veteran and cunning shark.  Eiza González stands firm as a sidekick, making up for an absence of toughness with the blind devotion of a ride or die partner.  Dianne Wiest is interestingly layered, seeming like a sweet old lady at first, but quickly revealing that she is as dangerous and cognizant as the elements that satellite her.  Peter Dinklage exudes the frustration of a man with extreme power up against a foe that should be easily defeatable, and yet, persists well past extreme means.  Chris Messina steps in with slick talk that seems effective, but is no match for Pike’s energy that fills her Marla characterization.  Nicholas Logan displays a lackey driven by parallel fears of failure and punishment to the point where he becomes an extension of Roman Lunyov’s rage.  Appearances by Macon Blair, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Damian Young, Alicia Witt, Georgia Lyman and a handful of others help bring the mad world of I Care a Lot to life.