I Care a Lot Movie Review

 I Care a Lot (2020)

Watch I Care a Lot on Netflix
Written by: J Blakeson
Directed by: J Blakeson
Starring: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Dianne Wiest, Chris Messina, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Macon Blair
Rated: R
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Plot
A crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of her elderly wards meets her match when a woman she tries to swindle turns out to be more than she first appears.

Verdict
The first forty five minutes are really good, but the last half of the movie becomes increasingly unbelievable. Average people become invincible action heroes, and I don't know for which bad guy I should root, the killer or the scammer. This shows us how easy it is to fool the system and swindle people, but it doesn't do anything with that. Once we get past the first half I kept thinking no actual person would behave like Marla.
Skip it.

Review
Marla (Rosamund Pike) preys on the elderly, scouring doctor offices for rich older people that she can pay off the doctor and get an emergency order to become the guardian. Marla then sells off their belongings. She's absolutely devious and out just for money. What's so effective about this scam is that it's easy to claim the elderly can't take care of themselves and that the family is biased. I only hope it isn't this easy in actuality. But, if everyone lies like this movie it could happen. Maybe the most unrealistic aspect is all of these rich elderly that can pay the group home, doctors, and still have enough money left over to make it worth it for Marla.

Rosamund Pike plays Marla.

Marla is stone cold. If the elderly resist or become agitated the staff just assume they're confused and sedate them. In this scheme the facility director is in on it. Everyone it taking a cut. When Marla runs this scam on  Jennifer (Dianne Wiest), Marla discovers a huge payday, but is warned by Jennifer that Marla has made a huge mistake. Wiest is great in the scene. Jennifer is heavily sedated, but delivers the threat so well.

A mystery forms as to who Jennifer is into and how she connects to Roman (Peter Dinklage). At forty five minutes in I really liked this movie. I had read many negative reviews and assumed this took a dive in the last half. It sure does.

Marla wants the group home to torture Jennifer. I don't know how anyone could hide that. A security guard has a live fire arm in the home and starts firing. This movie becomes silly very quickly. Marla runs a great hustle, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief that she would try to take on the mafia. Scamming the elderly and fighting the mafia are very different skill sets. Marla's excuse for not backing down is that the mob didn't play by the rules and instead of beating her in court, they brought a gun into a care home. That's an interesting reason since Marla doesn't care about the people in the home. It's also a very stupid reason that makes no sense.

Peter Dinklage plays Roman.

People are dying and surprisingly Marla isn't shaken. If the mafia was trying to avoid any devious activity, I might buy she gambles they wouldn't make a fuss and would rely on threats alone, but we've already seen that the mafia is completely willing to kill. Then the mafia instead of killing her outright opt for a monologue and an elaborate fake death. Marla escapes which further defies anything believable.

The end of this movie becomes me thinking, "That wouldn't happen." over and over. The plans of Roman and Marla are overly complicated, just to create plot for this movie. I like Roman more because Dinklage provides a few very subtle emotional moments. I don't want to root for him, but he's more likable than Marla. 

This gets worse as it continues. This ends a few times, but the third ending could be better if I hadn't seen it before. It just doesn't feel earned. I like the premise, but the focus on elderly care reform is quickly lost. Not that I want the movie to focus on the minutia, but with the ending we get I don't see any way that Marla's scam remains concealed on such a large scale.

Blue Ruin would be the closest antithesis I could think of for this movie. It has the Macon Blair connection, and while I Care a Lot becomes increasingly unbelievable, Blue Ruin remains grim and grounded. It's one of the few revenge movies where the main character is out matched and knows it.