Marla (Rosamund Pike) is a legal guardian of many an elderly person with dementia, to so many in fact she has made a business out of it - a very profitable business in fact, because you see, Marla isn't always super-honest and at times (as in invariably) shields her wards from their families in an assisted living facility and then funnels them of all their wealth and belongings. And now a befriended doctor (Alicia Witt) hands her a new ward, Jennifer (Dianne Wiest), pretty much on a silver platter, considerable wealth, no family, and while the possibility that she's actually suffering from dementia is pretty slim on a medical level, the court is easily convinced otherwise. And without having the least bit of say in it, Jennifer is sent to the assisted living home (that's really run more like a prison), and Marla and her girlfriend/business associate Fran (Eiza González) are quick to put her house on the market. And going through her bank locker, they find out Jennifer's actually quite a bit richer than they've ever imagined, including a fortune in unaccounted for diamonds. Thing is, Jennifer's not actually without family, she has a son, Roman (Peter Dinklage), who is a kingpin with the Russian mob, and he doesn't like her mother being locked away at all, so tries to get her released - at first actually the legal way with a lawyer (Chris Messina), who offers Marla quite a fortune for Jennifer's release, then goes to court with the case ... but Marla's not one to easily give up her Golden Goose. So next Roman sends his muscle to get his mother out by force, but the assisted living home's well-guarded for sure. As a logical consequence, he next goes after Marla and Fran, trying to kill them both when Marla refuses to reverse her guardianship. But Marla's resilient, manages to escape her car sinking to the bottom of a lake in an attempt on her life, pretty much last minute saves Fran from their apartment blowing up, and now, after Roman used his trademark strongarm techniques on her, she decides to go after him, by twisting law and legalities ...

What I really liked about this film is the totally immoral resolution it finds for its two lead opponents that pleasantly defies expectations one's used to put into Hollywood movies. As a whole, the film only rarely reaches this height. That's not at all to say I Care a Lot is a bad movie, as while it might be on the shallow side, it's very stringently written, and sometimes really funny. One just can't shake the feeling that more could have been made out of the concept narratively by giving the characters and story more depth, while a slightly indifferent directorial effort isn't doing all that much to make this one special either. So ultimately, this is some irreverent fun for sure, but little more.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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