I Care A Lot is a film written and directed by J Blakeson. Rosamund Pike is in the lead as Marla Grayson, as an advocate for elderly people who may need to become wards of the state. Marla makes a bit of an extra living basically helping herself to her wards’ possessions and belongings. Peter Dinklage, Eiza Gonzalez, Dianne Wiest, and Alicia Witt are also included in the cast.
Marla decides that an elderly woman named Jennifer Peterson should be added to her collection of victims. What she does not count on is that Ms. Peterson’s son is a diminutive yet dangerous crime boss played by Dinklage. Marla has an impressive stubborn streak which prevents her from cutting her losses and letting the mother go. Roman Lunyov has his own stubborn streak laced with psychotic violence, but at least his love and loyalty for his mother seems genuine. He isn’t that bad of a guy apparently.
It’s a strong cast and a fairly decent plot idea. It does get to be rather absurd toward the end, but the film is classified as a black comedy. Dinklage seems to be oddly cast as a super gangster, but I kind of got used to it. I like Dinklage enough to actually want to go with it. Pike is quite good as the manipulative, conniving Marla. Really, the movie does work pretty well for the most part. It was pretty fun to watch Dinklage and Pike finally engage fully in their contest of wills.
Pike did win a Golden Globe for her performance, and I didn’t see any reason to object to it. The film isn’t going to top any listings of classics, but it has quite a bit that works in its favor.
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