LONDON: There are moments during “I Care A Lot” when it’s tough to know who to root for. The dark comedy thriller, helmed by English director J Blakeson (“The Disappearance of Alice Creed” and BBC miniseries “Gunpowder”), follows the unashamedly wicked Marla Grayson, who has built an empire on assuming legal guardianship of elderly people only to drain them of their resources — as well as their agency and dignity. Marla is very clearly not the hero of this piece — but then, in fairness, she never (truthfully) claims to be. And when the smart, wily and vicious con woman (played by Rosamund Pike, clearly having a ball) butts heads with the mysteriously sinister Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage, having as much fun as his co-star), viewers are in something of a moral quandary. In many ways, Marla and Roman are as bad as each other, and as this whipsmart thriller races towards its final act, it’s hard to decide who’s worse.
Blakeson has crafted a truly engaging movie. The script is a little clunky and — thanks to the all-round level of depravity on both sides — there’s little for audiences to relate to, but this is a sinuously twisting film backed up by solid performances from the two leads. Co-stars Eiza González and Dianne West don’t get nearly enough to do, but the horribly enthralling Martha proves more than capable of keeping the story moving. For that, Pike deserves much praise — playing the character with such scheming malevolence that it’s hard to look away.
There’s some social commentary on perilously uncaring corporate capitalism at work within this subset of the US legal system, but that’s not really what this movie is about. Come for the moral indignation of the film’s premise, but stay for Pike’s gloriously wicked antihero. You’ll love to hate her.
