I Care a Lot

A woman (Rosamund Pike) runs a business using false diagnoses to force (healthy) elderly people into care homes. As their legal ward, she now controls their assets and drains their finances. She targets one innocent looking wealthy woman (Dianne Wiest) only to uncover some dark connections that could land her in serious trouble.

A solid script that lays down some interesting foundations, only to throw it all away in the final third. You can’t fault the actors, Rosamund Pike in particular turns in a memorable lead performance (although she does owe a lot to her hairstylist in this one) and the supporting cast are also flawless.

The issue is that this sordid and darkly amusing tale of awful people doing awful things then tries to sell us some girlboss feminism. It’s one determined woman versus the mob—you go girl! Then to top it all off it won’t even commit to its own perverted sense of justice, opting for an ironic ending that in theory ties everything up but in reality treats the audience like morons.

There’s also a lack of any technical flair here, the direction is all a bit paint-by-numbers. That’s fine when the script is good, but as things wear on the dullness starts to make itself known.

A near-hit, probably still worthy of your time if you fancy some escapism.