Artnewspress: Golden Globe winner Rosamund Pike heads up a biting, bouncy cat-and-mouse thriller about a cold con artist who, determined to be rich at all costs, abuses the elderly, essentially forcing the most vulnerable to be her legal wards so she can rob them of everything and confine them to nursing homes. And she’s the hero, ostensibly, in I Care A Lot: a swampy satire-noir out to reward the most black-hearted and cruel. It’s a wholly ugly story, but it all lands very well because of a mirthful tone and dark humor. Buried behind this devilish tale is the idea that mass wealth can only be achieved immorally and that those willing to shed their empathy (while faking it in public) will rise, but mostly this is a fun, grim pissing contest punctuated by fine performances and an off-kilter electronic score.Opting to not go overboard with heavy messaging about our broken systems and warped values and instead showcasing a sociopath who’s been built, brick by brick, by the worst of modern American culture, director J Blakeson’s wonderfully maddening movie is able to create a playground out of our moral ruin. A sort of “grifter New Jack City,” I Care A Lot pits two desperate forces against each other: the criminal vs. the technically legal but brazenly immoral.
When the dust settles there’s no takeaway other than “we’re all screwed” – but the dance itself is volatile and vulgar enough that it makes for a good, ruthless romp. And, if nothing else, it’ll make you more conscious of your elderly parents and the predators circling them.
But I Care A Lot never quite gives us that satisfaction, any least not in the ways we might want (or when we want them). No, Marla is the visionary here – the irresistible force to Peter Dinklage’s immovable object – instilled with the “never give up” credo that our country seems to laud, no matter what dire plan it’s fueling.
Pike is pitch-perfect as Marla, coating her with just enough humanity and humor that you might find yourself actually rooting for her, in spare occasions. Similar to what happens with most of her foes, Marla’s resolve aims to wear you down to the point where you contemplate joining her instead of defeating her. And Dinklage, who plays (without giving away too much) a powerful someone who becomes wise to Marla’s grift and has an active stake in ending it, discovers just how merciless the American Dream can be.
Verdict
You might be surprised how uncomfortable I Care A Lot makes you at the outset, before it steers more into noir territory, or that it doesn’t have much more to say about elder abuse than what it initially dangles in front of you. Overall, though, this contest of wicked wills is a vibrant, penetrating Pandora’s Box of predicaments and likeable yet evil central characters, played with satirical skill by Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage. Characters who, to varying degrees, the movie does its best to trick you into rooting for – against your better instincts – as they step on whoever they have to to get to the top.
