I Care a Lot (2021)
Directed by J Blakeson
A court-appointed legal guardian defrauds her older clients and traps them under her care. But her latest mark comes with some unexpected baggage.
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30 films that influenced I Care a Lot
What critics say influenced I Care a Lot
Watching Rosamund Pike chew up the screen much in the same way she did in her Oscar nominated performance ala “Gone Girl” makes for a perfect comedic thriller.
Marla has deafening echoes of not just Gone Girl ’s Amy Dunne (a blunt, sliced blonde bob; the icy, clipped voiceover) but also Nicole Kidman’s Suzanne Stone in To Die For .
Featuring a strong performance from Rosamund Pike, who channels the sociopathic iciness that earned her an Oscar nomination for Gone Girl , this is a film that turns the dial in a similar direction for the sake of something more in line with the crime comedies stemming from ways that use the system to feed one’s greed, in addition to empowerment.
Pike is fierce in the role, channeling and expanding upon her portrayal of Amy in Gone Girl.
Impeccably dressed in every scene, taking long drags from her vape pen and exhaling smoke like a dragon, Pike channels the same cold sociopathy that made her Gone Girl performance so captivating.
Thanks to Pike’s icy voiceover narration and other tonal and stylistic overlaps, it’s tough not to be reminded of Gone Girl — which isn’t a bad thing when such devices are employed this well.
Marla has deafening echoes of not just Gone Girl ’s Amy Dunne (a blunt, sliced blonde bob; the icy, clipped voiceover) but also Nicole Kidman’s Suzanne Stone in To Die For .
But lesbians taking on the mob aren’t necessarily new, and Blakeson doesn’t quite match the delicious energies exhibited in the Wachowski’s 1996 debut Bound , if mostly because the ice-cold Marla doesn’t build any believable heat or energy with Fern, who, if push actually came to shove, would likely be expendable in her scheming.
Despite insisting that she doesn’t need help, Jennifer is court-ordered out of her house and into the imprisoning corridors of the Berkshire Oaks retirement home – a bravura sequence executed with a Kafka-esque efficiency that reminded me of Steven Soderbergh’s nightmarish Unsane .
The frustrating scenario is almost breathlessly exacerbating as Wiest’s unassuming Jennifer Pederson is browbeaten and held against her will, in ways which recall Soderbergh’s highlighting of medical institutions as potential prisons in Unsane (2018).
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She evokes the magic found in performances like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street and more recently Hugh Jackman in Bad Education.
Films as different from each other as “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “I, Tonya,” “The Big Short” and now “I Care a Lot” seem to be onto something — the bad behavior is a pretty good time, and they’re a little bit serious about the implications of living a life free from ethics and morals and pesky legalities.
(Imagine the kinetic cool of the Ocean’s trilogy swirled with the manic noxiousness of The Wolf of Wall Street and you’re halfway there.)
The film takes some of its cues from the 1946 cult classic “Bedlam” (great title) with the master Boris Karloff in a diabolical role.
She’s a “cold goddess,” in the words of Grace Kelly’s similarly drawn Tracy in High Society (1956) .
She’s a satirical encapsulation of American capitalism gone haywire in the mold of Chuck Tatum from “Ace in the Hole” or Lou Bloom from “Nightcrawler,” antiheroes who spy profit where others see pain.
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Instead, it recalls such ‘90s exercises in post-Tarantino nihilism as Very Bad Things.
Like Alice Creed , which carried flavors of early Neil Marshall as well as Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave , I Care a Lot also feels indebted to Blakeson’s fellow UK genre filmmakers.