I remember film fans’ worries when English actress Rosamund Pike broke through globally with David Fincher’s Gone Girl (2014). They were concerned that the impressive, memorable performance would pigeonhole Pike as a messed-up, crazy lady on screen.
After all, it happened to Linda Fiorentino after John Dahl’s The Last Seduction (1994). And although Sharon Stone had her share of the movie-star limelight, she never really escaped her iconic character in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992).
Fortunately for Pike, she hasn’t been properly typecast yet. But she also hasn’t found a hit as big as Gone Girl with any of the period pieces she’s starred in since then. Now movie lovers can see her revisit the villainous femme fatale type for the first time in almost seven years with J. Blakeson’s dark satire I Care a Lot for Netflix.
Marla Grayson (Pike) is a successful, professional, full time legal guardian for many elderly patients in nursing homes. What people don’t know is that she shamelessly scams and manipulates the law into letting her take responsibility for these senior citizens so she can make money ripping off their inheritances.
Marla’s agenda is foolproof thanks to the help of her girlfriend and business partner, Fran (Eiza González), and opportunist doctor Karen Amos (Alicia Witt). When Karen offers the duo a “cherry”—a single, childless elderly person with no close family connections—she’s found, it seems, the perfect opportunity. That is until the cherry, Jennifer (Dianne Wiest) turns out to have a secret relative, Roman (Peter Dinklage), who is in the Russian mob.
Unlike in Emerald Fennell’s recent satire Promising Young Woman, where Carey Mulligan’s lead is punishing people who arguably deserve it, Blakeson’s I Care a Lot has no redeeming characters to be found. Our protagonists are unethical frauds and the antagonists are the Mafia. Even by dark comedy standards I was left wondering a lot during the first two acts why we should care what happens to Marla and Fran once they’re in trouble.
Interestingly, I have the same feelings about Blakeson’s film that I had with Promising Young Woman. We have another questionable narrative with a weak third act that is just barely saved in the last 30 seconds of the movie.
But everything technical and aesthetical in I Care a Lot is fine and Pike is good, even channeling back her “Amazing Amy” look from Gone Girl with the same blunt haircut. González’s casting is a revelation, as she is one of the last starlets I might have pictured playing a tomboy lesbian. Yet she totally pulls it off.
Depending on your tolerance for morally bankrupt characters, I Care a Lot is a decent new release that is perfect for streaming at home during a free night.
Megan Bianco is a Southern California-based movie reviewer and content writer with a degree from California State University Northridge.