Few contemporary archetypes are as seductive as that of the elegant con artist— someone whose ability to corrupt legal systems with charm and cold calculation intrigues more than it outrages. “I Care a Lot”, by J Blakeson, dives headfirst into this paradox with unsettling precision. The film offers no moral relief; instead, it immerses the viewer in disorienting ambiguity, where the central figure — a woman who builds an empire by exploiting the vulnerable — is both appalling and oddly admirable. The story doesn’t just showcase this contradiction; it unpacks it, revealing a social mechanism where predatory cunning is valued above any ethical constraint.
Blakeson revisits here an obsession present since “The Disappearance of Alice Creed”: women in control of cruel, intricate games. If his debut blurred brutality with traditional suspense, this time the tone is icier, more cynical. “I Care a Lot” makes no attempt to redeem its protagonist and offers no shortcuts to empathy. The narrative’s visual polish mirrors its moral austerity, constructing a world where nothing is left to chance. Within this framework, Rosamund Pike proves not just effective but indispensable. Her ability to radiate charisma while committing institutional abuse turns Marla Grayson into an unsettling emblem of unchecked capitalist logic.
What makes Marla so disturbing is her absolute command of the rules — not to dismantle them, but to exploit them to the fullest. Her business is legal, efficient, and deeply immoral. By becoming the court-appointed guardian of elders deemed unfit to care for themselves, she hijacks their lives with pristine documentation and professional smiles. Her success doesn’t rely on brute force, but on legal shields and social complacency. Ethics, in her world, are replaced by performance and precision. Pike builds a character whose vanity blends into conviction and whose ambition hides behind polished justifications. Marla isn’t conflicted — she knows exactly what she’s doing, and she does it because she can.
But the structure she’s built begins to crack when her latest target — seemingly defenseless Jennifer Peterson — turns out to have ties to a lawless underworld. Peter Dinklage plays Roman Lunyov, a mobster with quiet menace, flipping the story’s power dynamic: the system-savvy Marla is suddenly pitted against someone who plays entirely outside it. At that point, the film shifts from a character study to a steadily intensifying thriller, where corporate logic clashes with unfiltered violence. The game escalates, but the terrain has changed: what was once manipulation now becomes a raw struggle for survival.
This pivot is key, revealing that Marla’s dominance was never about brilliance — it thrived only within a predictable system. Outside that structure, her calculated detachment becomes vulnerability. Her once-flawless strategy begins to falter amid unpredictable variables. Still, she refuses to fold. Marla is more than a villain; she represents a form of rationality that flourishes where systems are flawed. Her downfall only arrives when she’s confronted with something she never accounted for: the unforeseen consequences of her own schemes. The entrance of Macon Blair as the agent of this reckoning — a man with no power but with a memory — proves that not every wound can be neatly filed away.
The true sting of “I Care a Lot” lies in its refusal to offer ideological comfort. The screenplay corners the viewer: even as it exposes Marla’s monstrosity, it forces us to acknowledge her competence. She embodies an era where morally neutral efficiency is celebrated as virtue. The film’s humor is biting and dark, born from a rigged game where every player is compromised. There are no heroes, no purely evil figures — just those who know how to work the gears, until someone finally shuts the machine down.
What makes the film provocative is its capacity to hold up a warped mirror. The real question isn’t why we root for Marla, but what that says about a culture that enables her. Perhaps the true scandal of “I Care a Lot” is its diagnosis: in a society obsessed with winners, the cost of victory rarely matters — until it hits home.
Film: I Care a Lot
Director: J Blakeson
Year: 2020
Genres: Comedy/Drama/Thriller
Rating: 8/10