I Care A Lot (2020)

I Care A Lot is a satiric thriller revolving around the industry of aged care and legal guardianship. The film, written and directed by J. Blakeson, stars Rosamund Pike in a chilling depiction of a woman who actually cares very little and is casually flippant about the moral turpititude of what she does. Unfortunately, her commanding performance and the skill of the supporting cast (including Diane Weist and Peter Dinklage) are unable to make up for the film’s lack of humour, despite it’s sleek presentation.

Marla Grayson runs a company as a legal guardian, greasing various wheels in order to con the elderly and their families into funding her vaguely glamorous lifestyle. With her wards left to rot in the clutches of a complicit and clutching series of care facilities, Marla and her partner (in business and in life) go about selling off their assets and fending off any scrutiny from concerned relatives and the courts. One day, their target turns out to be someone with connections to a violent criminal underworld, and so begins a game of cat and mouse wherein the stakes are continually raised and Marla is forced to test her own resolve as someone who refuses to lose in any venture.

Blakeson’s film is sharp and clever, but it takes too long to really get going. After a lengthy opening, complete with gaudy narration from Marla justifying her vile system of abuse and graft, the audience is left without any chance to empathise or even slightly warm up to her character. Pike is good in the role, but both the writing and her venomous portrayal are too on the nose throughout to leave any room for nuance or doubt. The same goes for every other character in the film, each of whom betray characteristics that sign post them all as being unworthy of even our most misguided sympathies. While Weist, Dinklage and especially Chris Messina are convincing in their roles, the film suffers without any character to root for. This choice is quite challenging and even serves to cement a terribly unsubtle point within the film, but it also makes it somewhat flat and predictable throughout.

I Care A Lot isn’t a terrible film, but it isn’t particularly likeable either. Blakeson’s direction is certainly confident and even gripping at times, but he’s working with a club where what’s required is a scalpel. Pike and Dinklage match up well together as opposing forces, but the satire would be better served if it wasn’t written so blatantly across every frame from beginning to end. In saying that, there are laughs here and there and much to be admired in the deft execution of what is, unfortunately, an obvious and circuitous plot.

Leaning too hard on it’s message and stylistic approach rather than even a feigned interest in subtlety, I Care A Lot is a lukewarm and dazzling attempt to shock which only manages to irritate for the most part. Though it says plenty worth considering on the subject of human nature in the context of capitalism, the themes are undermined by the relentlessness of the overall tone. The effect, in the end, is enough to alienate not only the characters onscreen, but also the wider audience.

2.5/5