I Care a Lot (2021)

Could this really happen? "Marla Grayson" (Rosamund Pike) is a scheming, manipulative creature who takes advantage of folk in difficulty (real or otherwise) so she can put them in managed accommodation, drugged up to their eyeballs, whilst she realises, and disposes of, whatever assets they may have had on the outside. It's a clever network of conspirators - reliant on a justice system predicated on respect for the professional opinions offered to it by doctors, care home managers and, of course, by this thoroughly odious woman. She and girlfriend "Fran" (Eiza González) alight on their latest mark - "Jennifer" (Dianne Wiest) and all is going to plan before we discover that she wasn't quite the woman they thought, and that powerful interests have taken an interest in getting her free and her possessions back... Enter Peter Dinklage who manages to illicit a sort of comic menace (there's a fun scene where he shields his face from a bank camera as if to hide his identity amongst a great crowd of other men of his height - not!?) Anyway, he determines to have the woman freed and is a man of some considerable resource. "Grayson" fights back and what was, until now, quite an interesting story descends quickly into the realms of silliness. Her character is clever and shrewd, but as so often happens with these kind of films - she quickly acquires the skills of a trained ninja whilst he, the fearful gangster, ends up looking little more dangerous that yesterday's milk. It is almost as if someone wrote the first forty minutes or so, then went for a tea break and his 5 year old child finished it. Eventually, the ending did provide me with the result I wanted, coming from the left-field for a tiny twist and Pike is pretty good at the start - she depicts this heartless woman skilfully, raising heckles as she goes - it's just a shame that it all fell to pieces so quickly, and so thoroughly...