I Care a Lot: Great storytelling

Movie Review: I Care a Lot (2020) on Netflix

I Care a Lot is about a lot of things. Untwisting the plot entanglements and knots is half the fun. The other half is enjoying the actors playing the characters doing the tying and twisting (or untwisting) and knotting. And this is what makes I Care a Lot so darned watchable. 

Rosamund Pike plays Marla Grayson, an attorney for an nearly invisible legal firm that sets herself up as legal guardian for unwitting elderly wards without family and swindles them out of their assets by setting them up in a posh nursing home. It's all legal, of course, if dubious. Dianne Wiest plays Jennifer Peterson, one of Grayson's dupes, who though she isn't the brightest bulb is aware something ain't right when she's taken to the nursing home without her consent. And she's a problem for Grayson, because she's connected to Roman Lunyov (played by Peter Dinklage), a member of the Russian Mafia, as one of his assets.

Now, neither Grayson nor Lunyov like to lose, and the story becomes not just a battle to save Peterson's assets (personal or the Mafia's), but a battle of wits between two driven achievers. Who will win? The legal eagle who dots her I's and crosses her T's and leaves no loose ends? Or the brutal strategist who isn't afraid to play rough and loose with the rules to get his way? That's why we sit through to the end of the film!

Did I mention Pike won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for this movie? Need I remind you Dinklage has made a career of playing lovable rogues, none so famous as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones? Together, they make a power couple on the screen. And Wiest is just amazing as the little ol' lady who should be out of her legal league but isn't to be trifled with or counted out. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Lunyov and his merry band of Mafia thugs don't sound like Russians. This might have been something the director should have picked up on? Still, it's a minor flaw when you take into consideration the brilliance of the writing and the main acting otherwise. 

If you haven't seen I Care a Lot, it's worth a view. I rate it A^ for Above Average for great storytelling.