I Care a Lot is the latest direct-to-Netflix movie, a phrase that can be applied to so many films lately and of such varying quality that it hardly tells you anything at all except where you can watch it. Starring the always-committed Rosamund Pike and many people’s favorite Game of Thrones alum Peter Dinklage, I Care a Lot fits perfectly into this group of mostly entertaining, if not all that memorable, internet flicks. Remember Enola Holmes? I barely do and I reviewed it just a few months ago.
I Care a Lot shares a common theme with another current film, the Hulu documentary Framing Britney Spears (recommended), which covers Britney’s legal conservatorship under her father, in which Spears was deemed unable to control her own finances or make practically any decisions for herself at all.
This Netflix thriller sees Pike as a purely predatory version of Spears’ father. Marla Grayson (Pike) is the Gordon Gekko of legal guardians. The only thing more severe than her haircut is her drive to take away elderly people’s rights to their estates—legally of course, always legally—and bleed them bone dry. Aside from her assistant/girlfriend Fran (Eiza González), power and money are the only things she cares about. Even in the face of certain death she says she’s not afraid, that she just wants to be able to “use money as a weapon, like a bludgeon, the way real rich people do.”
The “certain death” Marla faces comes from Peter Dinklage’s character, a quick-tempered crime boss who becomes Marla’s nemesis when she unknowingly puts his mother (the always great Dianne Wiest) under her legal guardianship. Throw some diamonds in the mix and you get a serviceable, slick thriller, pitting two terrible people against each other, neither of whom are willing to back down, because . . . money, pride, entertainment? It’s not clear what the film is trying to say about its characters, or why we should invest in either of these two awful, predatory people. I suppose the pleasure should come from “how” these characters outwit and out-evil each other (Breaking Bad being the prime example of this), but I Care a Lot never really approaches that level, though you get the feeling it thinks it does.
Maybe I’m just too old and can’t root for the anti-hero anymore, but when that anti-hero’s goal is to become the Jeff Bezos of legally stealing from the elderly, it’s hard to care if things do or do not work out for her.
If this kind of darkly devilish stuff is your thing, though, you’ll find a well-made and well-acted feature with a cool, chillwave soundtrack. And if, like me, you find the subject matter and some of its justifications a little off-putting, there’s still enough style and verve in I Care a Lot to warrant a lazy weekend watch. Besides, you’ll likely forget about it in a few months’ time anyway.
