I Care a Lot (2020)

I Care a Lot (2020)

4/10

 Starring

Rosamund Pike

Peter Drinklage

Elza Gonzalez

Dianne Wiest

 

Directed by J Blakeson

 

The comedian John Oliver did better justice to the main topic of legal guardianship than this movie. His comedic tone and thrilling reveals beat this movie hands down.

Rosamund Pike is getting a lot of praise for her role in this film, which goes over my head. I felt all the cast members did well enough with the anticlimactic script they had to work with. Here’s a movie that lost its momentum the moment the producers got so caught up in making the two lead women badasses. Then they gave up on that at the very end.

I just couldn’t wrap my head around how two white-collar criminals were able to switch to kidnapping overnight. And they didn’t kidnap a regular guy—they went after a mob boss.

They didn’t make this a sophisticated kidnapping; they just went in with tasers and took down all his security, not one bullet fired. They made it look like something I could do, which, of course, I know I can’t. From then on, the movie, for me, went downhill.

The plot is about a woman who runs a scam. She and her team seek out old, well-to-do people, get their doctors to declare them incapable of taking care of themselves, and get legal guardianship over these senior citizens. They then use that legal document to sell everything these people have and milk them for all the money they’ve got.

Things take a turn for them when they pull the same stunt on a mob boss’s mother. Her son, who is under the radar, doesn’t find it funny discovering that his mother is locked up in a care facility and he can’t reach her. So, he’s now willing to do anything to get her back, including killing.

Also, the feminist moments in this movie were so uncalled for. Twice (or more), she made the point that men won’t boss her around. This is a point she made when she stole/kidnapped a human (the mother) from these men, and they’re asking for their human back. How is that them trying to boss you around?

Then add the incompetence of the mob boss’s men, who are unable to complete an assassination twice. All these moments weren’t played with comedic tones, but made to look like dumb luck that these ladies escaped death.

I’ve seen this story covered by John Oliver on his HBO show, Last Week Tonight. The episode was titled Guardianship, and he was able to explain the loophole in the system that could, and has, led to the incidents depicted in this movie. He also gave tips on how people in the United States can combat such things.

I Care a Lot gave Pike a Best Actress win at the Golden Globes. You can catch the movie on Amazon Prime.