‘I Care a Lot’ antihero is too cruel to be cool
“Look at you, sitting there. You think you’re good people? You’re not good people — trust me. There’s no such thing as good people.”
This is how Marla Grayson introduces herself to us in the opening moments of “I Care a Lot.”
Portrayed excellently by Rosamund Pike — nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the performance in this enjoyable-but-problematic movie, which debuts on Netflix this week — Marla goes on to explain she once believed working hard and playing fair would lead to success and happiness.
“It doesn’t,” she says. “Playing fair is a joke invented by rich people to keep the rest of us poor. And I’ve been poor; it doesn’t agree with me.”
We hear these words from Marla over images of work and life at a senior-care facility. That’s because Marla is a professional court-appointed guardian for dozens of elderly wards.
However, she makes her real money by essentially imprisoning these older folks in nursing homes and relieving them of their assets as time goes along.
She’s disappointed early on after learning a man who’s been in her care for only six months has died. She figured she had a couple of years left of bleeding
him dry financially. Yeah, it’s ugly stuff. In the film’s production notes, writer-director J Blakeson (“The Disappearance of Alice Creed,” “The 5th Wave”) says the idea stems from “news stories about real-life predatory guardians who game the system and exploit their wards,” reports that left him “horrified.”
The whole idea of that IS horrifying, which leaves “I Care a Lot” with a problem.
While many anti-heroes have made effective protagonists, they must have some redeeming qualities or be relatable in a meaningful way.
We can’t help but root
for Tony Soprano, for example, because despite the horrible things he sometimes does, he loves his family and can be, you know, kinda likable.
It’s hard to like Marla, even a little. And despite her accusation that we are not good people, it’s hard to relate to her.
Sure, you could admire her high-level ambition, her cunning or her determination, but aside from those traits, about the best you can say about her is she seems to care deeply about one other person: her business associate and lover, Fran (Eiza Gonzalez of “Hobbs and Shaw: and “Baby Driver”).
With the help of Fran and other ethically challenged folks — most notably a doctor (Alicia Witt, “Orange Is the New Black”) and the director of a senior-care facility (Damian Young, “House of Cards”) — as well as a gullible judge (Isiah Whitlock Jr., “Da 5 Bloods”), Marla takes complete advantage of folks without a hint of regret.
Her road gets rocky after being tipped off by the doc about a “cherry,” a very well-off woman, Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), who seemingly has no family, but who does have good insurance and whose memory issues could be greatly exaggerated in documents for the right price.
With a court order in hand and backed by the authorities, Marla is able to remove Jennifer from her lovely home — which Marla practically undresses with her eyes — despite the understandably confused woman’s vehement objections. Marla then places her in a costly corner suite at her associate’s facility, where Jennifer’s phone is taken from her. (Its use, Jennifer learns, will require approval from her guardian, Marla.)
Turns out, though, Jennifer does have a living son, a powerful gangster, Roman (Peter Dinklage), who prefers to stay in the shadows. He is greatly troubled when he learns his mother wasn’t at her home to be picked up for one of their rare, precious days together.
Once Roman comes to understand his mother’s circumstances, he unleashes a lawyer, Dean Erickson (Chris Messina, “Argo”), on Marla. However, neither threats nor the offer of a payoff gets the job done.
Of course, things get messier from there.
Along with its protagonist problem — if anything, we root for aggrieved antagonist Roman, but he, too, is a loathsome person — “I Care a Lot” supposedly wants to be a dark comedy, but it seldom manages to be funny.
Were Blakeson shooting for a darkly irreverent tone, which would have helped the material, his direction wildly misses the mark. (To be fair, Pike’s Golden Globe nod is for lead actress in a musical or comedy, and no one’s breaking into song here.)
These problems also fall on the writing of Blakeson, who also makes a couple of head-scratching narrative choices we won’t get into because they come so late in the film.
Even with these issues, though, “I Care a Lot” is reasonably entertaining, thanks largely to the performances of Pike (“Jack Reacher,” “Radioactive”), who channels her memorable bad-girl “Gone Girl” vibe here, and Dinklage (“Game of Thrones,” “The Station Agent”), who’s always captivating.
It’s a bummer Wiest (“Hanna and her Sisters,” “Let Them Talk”) isn’t given more to do, but she makes something out of her limited screen time.
As “I Care a Lot” zips toward its resolution, we think Marla will get what’s coming to her, but she’s tough, so it’s hard to be sure. Plus, we’re still not even sure that’s what we’re supposed to want.
But because this film is rather engaging and a bit thought-provoking, we wish we cared a little more.
“I Care a Lot” is rated R for language throughout and some violence.