Stars: 1/5
I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be funny or serious. It failed miserably at both.
It began promisingly enough. Rosamund Pike, who portrays main character Marla Grayson, delivers a calm and collected voiceover.
“Playing fair is a joke invented by rich people to keep the rest of us poor,” Grayson says. “I’ve been poor. It doesn’t agree with me.”
That’s where the relatability and amusement end.
Netflix’s original film “I Care A Lot” follows Grayson, a court-appointed legal guardian who takes advantage of elderly people in a long-running con.
Dr. Amos, played by Alicia Witt, claims her patients, usually ones of difficult natures or rich backgrounds, can no longer take care of themselves. Grayson then persuades a judge to give her guardianship over the elders and moves them to a care facility.
Sam Rice, played by Damian Young, manages the nursing home and is more than willing to isolate and even punish the elderly on behalf of Grayson, who keeps his rooms stocked.
Grayson goes on to take advantage of the elders’ savings, running estate sales and in some cases selling their entire homes. She and her girlfriend Fran, portrayed by Eiza González, live a seemingly well-off life this way.
Viewers assume this is a long running grift with no sign of stopping, until Grayson runs her con on Dianne Wiest’s character Jennifer Peterson, a woman with friends in high, or maybe more accurately, low places.
She has ties to the mafia, and they are getting her out of the nursing home, whatever it takes.
The entire middle half of the movie is dedicated to a round robin of who will murder who first. Will Grayson’s wits or Peter Dinklage’s mafia succeed? There’s taser guns, near-deaths and hostage situations, and yet, I didn’t gasp or hold my breath once because I simply did not care.
I did not care about a single character in the movie.
Asking viewers to root for a sociopath taking advantage of the elderly is a bit of a stretch from the start, but there wasn’t even an attempt to make Grayson’s character likeable. I didn’t love to hate Grayson. I just hated her.
As for the other characters, I felt largely indifferent. To say the least, both the plot and the characterization failed to make me feel invested. The only thing I was rooting for was the end of the movie.
There is a rather humorous, unexpected twist at the end, if you can manage to make it through.
Honestly you could watch the first five minutes, fast forward, watch the scene where Chris Messina’s character Dean Ericson meets with Grayson, fast forward and watch the last five minutes.
Pay attention to the screencaps as they fly by, you’ll get the gist of the plot, you’ll have witnessed the best parts and you won’t waste a full two hours.