Movie Review: I Care a Lot

"There's no such thing as a good person"- protagonist Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) defiantly exclaims in the opening voiceover monologue of I Care a Lot. That simple piece of dialogue outlines exactly what kind of nasty, immoral characters occupy this darkly comedic crime thriller's universe. 

Grayson is a smart, maniacal woman who with the help of her partners in the medical and assisted living communities muscles her way into becoming the court-appointed legal guardians of vulnerable senior citizens, cuts them off completely from the outside world then sells off their homes/assets. 

Thanks to Grayson's intelligence/knack for manipulating the facts to make convincing legal arguments  whenever she's taken to court by a client's family member and the continued compliance from the people she's aligned with in the system, this grift she and her wife/business partner Fran (Eiza Gonzalez) are running is basically an infallible cash cow that will continue to work as long as all of the key parties keep getting a piece of the pie. The seamlessness of their operation all changes when a doctor (Alicia Witt) hands Grayson what seems like a jackpot of a client in a single woman (Dianne Wiest) with potential memory loss issues that has no living family. Shortly after entering Grayson's care, it becomes evident that this woman isn't the easy mark she appeared to be and this hostile takeover of her assets has put Grayson on the radar of a powerful ex-mobster (Peter Dinklage) who will do anything it takes to free this woman from Grayson's care.

While it does provide some insight on the innerworkings of the complex system that drives it, I Care a Lot isn't so much a commentary on the often explorative business of conservatorships as it is a story of a person who makes their living off exploiting vulnerable people finally getting a taste of the life-altering suffering they've spent years happily dishing out to others. Pike's effortless icy villainy paired with J. Blakeson's kinetic direction makes Grayson's self-imposed fight for survival a fascinating one-particularly in the scenes with Dinklage, whose mysterious character is the only person in this universe that's just as unflappable, driven and ruthless as her. The pendulum keeps swinging back and forth in this relentless battle of wits between the two formidable opponents until it reaches a genuinely unexpected outcome that somehow manages to surpass all of the pretty constant bleakness that preceded it. Clearly a film with shitty people engaging in varying degrees of shitty behavior isn't going to appeal to everyone, but anybody that's willing to frolic in the dirt for roughly 2 hours could end up having a blast with it.                  

Grade: B+