Pictured Above: I Care A Lot stars Rosamund Pike as a crooked legal guardian.
Courtesy of IMDB
By Molly Ryan
I Care a Lot has all of the elements of a great thriller: revenge, murder, Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and lesbians.
So that begs the question: Why didn’t I like this movie?
The film follows Pike as Marla Grayson, a young woman who preys on rich elderly people by becoming their legal guardian and claiming their inheritances.
However, Grayson meets her match when she claims that Jennifer Peterson, an unmarried woman with a mysterious mound of assets, is no longer well enough to take care of herself.
Not going down without a fight, Grayson soon becomes entangled in a struggle for power, the mafia and murder, and begins to question if Jennifer Peterson is even a real identity.
The film also starsEiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver) and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones). Writer and director J Blakeson previously directed The Fifth Wave.
To put it frankly, there is not a single likeable character in this movie. While it is a seemingly purposeful choice to make the female lead an antihero, I found myself feeling less and less sympathy for the shortcomings that Grayson was experiencing as the film progressed.
In the film, Dinklage harks back to his comic relief that audiences once saw in his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. His one or two deadpan jokes landed perfectly, but it was not enough to save the film from its lack-luster writing and predictability.
The rule of thumb that writing outweighs even the best of performances held true.
When researching this movie, many publications made its LGBTQ+ representation out to be a main plotline in the movie.
This was not the case. This film is far from a romance.
The film’s attempt to make Gonzalez, who plays Grayson’s partner Fran, a likeable voice of reason compared to Grayson’s incessant need to win, just turns her into a boring, non-developmental character.
The couple lacked so much chemistry that my friends and I thought they were just roommates until they kissed.
While unoriginal, the movie’s ending was extremely satisfying and wraps up the story’s frustrating plot quite nicely.
Despite the overwhelming amount of things I did not like about this movie, overall I thought it was shot well, had a great soundtrack and was very fun to watch with some equally critical friends.
Any way, time to go watch Gone Girl again – [5/10].
