I CARE A LOT (2020) – An immoral take on greed and power

The lovely Rosamund Pike plays a crook who swindles money from unsuspecting old folks who are conned into being stuck in old folks homes. As legal guardians to these patients, she gets to manage their wealth without their awareness. She gets her due when she picked on the wrong elderly lady who has links to even worst baddies.

With a plot like that, I Care A Lot (what a totally unimaginative and annoying title!), is given the run-of-the-mill Hollywood treatment. Fortunately we have Rosamund Pike and Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage to keep things watchable. They manage to put on decent performances despite the increasingly unbelievable plot they are compelled to be a part of. With the exception of the veteran actress Dianne Wiest playing the elderly victim, the rest of the supporting characters merely serve as one dimensional wall paper. Let me see, we have the sexy and loving lesbian lover, the greedy and corrupt doctor, the honest but gullible judge, the ex lover who works for the police force, the bumbling side-kicks, and so on. These characters are so lacking in depth they might as well be replaced with cartoon images.

Rosamund Pike holds centre court throughout the film and I dare say even dangerously glamourising crookery in the way Hollywood is so capable of. I guess this may be difficult to avoid given that everybody in the story seem to be crooked in one way or another. The ending offers only a half baked, mild form of retribution that feels forced and insincere. The overall story and message of I Care A Lot is not something I would want young impressionable minds to be polluted by. The only reason I am giving this movie 2 stars despite all its flaws is solely because of Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage (they each contributed one star here).