I Care A Lot is a good watch if you’re looking for an elevated average B movie.
The film follows Marla, who seeks legal guardianship over the elderly for her financial gain. When one of her clients has ties to a threatening gangster, she finds herself in hot water by preying on the wrong client.
What concerns me about this film is I’m starting to see some buzz around it being a contender for awards season which I don’t think it falls into that category.
I could tell that most of the budget was used on it's star cast members, which meant the execution of the remainder of the film was pretty bland. It rubbed me the wrong way watching the film as the storyline could have been executed effectively with more attention to the details to each department.
This isn't the films fault completely as Hollywood has a mentality that a star studded cast is necessary for a successful film. However, this could have been the perfect breakout performance film for a fresh up and coming actor. The film ended up feeling like a missed opportunity to me, where it just felt rushed, uninspired and just average.
I was surprised to see the film categorized as a thriller comedy, since the film didn't really include too many amusing scenes, and if so I clearly missed them. I typically love dry, dark humour which is what I think the film was aiming for but still unsure as how the comedy was presented.
The film has some serious intriguing set ups that we’re teased but never fully delivered. Peter Dinklage plays a mobster yet his threatening power was never fully revealed. Now there’s lots of great characters who have a intimidating demeanour who talk more than act but, in this film it wasn’t fully fleshed out enough to come across as menacing. There was so much hype around the 'bad guy' engird of this mobster that the audience never fully gets a glimpse of or if we did it wasn’t enough. It lowered the stakes completely which negatively effected the overall plot.
I keep seeing a comparison of Pikes performance in this film and Gone Girl, and I can understand the reference but don't see the connection at all. Gone Girl is an almost a perfect film, and very far from I Care A Lot. Comparing both characters isn't the best approach as it makes Pikes performance in this film look bare minimal, when she is a phenomenal actress.
Overall it was enjoyable film, I do believe it could’ve been cut down an extra half hour to be really solid. It felt very B movie which isn't necessarily a bad thing just a little basic.
3/5
Comments