Netflix announced back at the end of 2020 that the service would be dropping a new movie onto their service once a week for the entirety of 2021. That didn’t mean they had 52 gems, but that by itself is a somewhat impressive feat, and some of them may turn out to be rather watchable. One of the earliest such releases was I Care a Lot, and while the movie got a lot of buzz and I did add it to my watchlist, for reasons I cannot explain, I never got to it.
But since so many people I know seemed to enjoy this one, I figured yesterday was as good a day as any. Just don’t ask when I’m getting to The Harder They Fall.
Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a legal guardian, mostly for the elderly who can’t take care of themselves. That’s the theory anyway. As she explains in her opening voiceover, she plays the system to bilk senior citizens for all they’re worth, regardless of what either her targets or their families have to say about it. She knows the system, has a cop and a doctor working with her to find victims, and she’s familiar enough with the local family court judge to basically get away with it each and every time. She just knows how to really work the system to her advantage. But then she makes what may be a huge tactical error when she targets one Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest). Jennifer, on paper, has no family and is independently wealthy. Working the courts the way she always does, Marla gets herself declared Jennifer’s legal guardian without even meeting the woman, hustles her off to a nursing home where the manager is in on her con, and starts to sell off Jennifer’s considerable assets. Small problem for Marla: Jennifer wasn’t what she appeared to be, and there is someone who cares about her very much.
That would be one Roman (Peter Dinklage). He has money, means, and he isn’t afraid to play dirty if he doesn’t get what he wants. While Marla knows her business and how to play the local system like a violin, Roman has large resources. Both are used to getting their own way, and only one of them can win this one. Can Marla stand up to such a powerful man? And what makes him so powerful anyway?
Much of the appeal to this movie is watching the two make moves. Marla’s are small, subtle, and well-practiced. She does this for a living, and she knows how to work things to her advantage. Roman, on the other hand, isn’t subtle. Sure, he tries to do things with a high-priced lawyer at first, but he does have a lot more money, power, and people in his corner. But Marla doesn’t need that. Pike plays the character as someone so practiced at being someone who can pretend to care in a blandly professional way. It’s the sort of care we might expect from someone who works with the elderly for a living, and while we would expect such a person to care, let’s face it, we do put a lot of trust into people to care for others at the end of their lives when they may or may not be on the level. I mean, there’s a reason people found the sudden publication of Harper Lee’s second novel a wee bit suspicious. While both Dinklage and Wiest are great in their respective roles, this is Pike’s show, and she runs away with it.
That said, one small quibble in an otherwise fun movie: that soundtrack bugged me for some reason. I don’t generally note a soundtrack unless it’s either particularly good or particularly intrusive, and the electronic whateveritwas on this movie was definitely in the latter category.
Grade: A-
0 Comments