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The smooth, clockwork precision of the operation is at once stunning and terrifying.

A doctor selects an elderly patient who looks like a good candidate for guardianship: a person of solid financial means who’s not too old and infirm just yet, but possibly on the brink of dementia. A judge signs a court order asserting that this woman can no longer care for herself and needs someone else to step in and help. A legal guardian shows up at the woman’s house with the document, saying she’s in charge now and insisting she’ll take good care of her property and finances. A driver whisks her away to a nursing home where the manager escorts her to a private room, promising she’ll be treated like a queen.

And once all the pieces are in place, the guardian is free to drain this unsuspecting woman of every penny she’s got. 

The grift is impressive in “I Care a Lot,” writer/director J Blakeson’s pitch-black comedy. You’ve gotta say that much for it. But it’s also so infuriating that you probably couldn’t stomach watching the whole thing were it not for the riveting lead performance from Rosamund Pike . Blakeson, whose previous films include the stylish mystery “The Disappearance of Alice Creed” as well as the derivative dystopian YA thriller “ The 5th Wave ,” has said he was inspired and enraged by stories he read about predatory guardians taking advantage of voiceless victims. Pike’s Marla Grayson is the towering embodiment of unchecked avarice within a system that’s ripe for exploitation.

With her razor-sharp blonde bob, monochromatic suits, and ever-present vape pen, Marla is a woman driven by cold, hard ambition. That much would have been obvious without her opening voiceover, in which she justifies her scam: “Playing fair is a joke invented by rich people to keep the rest of us poor.” During a court hearing at the film’s start, she argues in persuasive, clear-eyed fashion that she can more accurately assess what’s in the best interest of her clients because she has no skin in the game, unlike family members who are fraught with emotional baggage and financial expectations. To her, it’s all transactional. So when she gets the news that one of her clients has died, she pulls his headshot off the wall where it hangs among dozens of others, wads it up and throws it in the trash without a drop of emotion.

“I thought he had legs,” remarks the doctor ( Alicia Witt ) who serves up her potential marks, for a cut. But soon, another possibility arises: “a cherry,” as they refer to a prime candidate, and the blasé cruelty in Blakeson’s script is the point. It’s meant to make us uncomfortable, and it’s effective. Jennifer Peterson ( Dianne Wiest ) has no kids, husband or living family, and while she’s suffering from the beginnings of borderline dementia, she’s active and will likely be around for a long time. She’s just a nice, normal old lady, totally functional, living an unremarkable life—but to Marla and Fran ( Eiza González ), her partner in business and romance, she’s “like a golden f**king goose.”

What these predators don’t realize is that they’ve chosen the wrong prey this time, and that by kidnapping, imprisoning, and bilking this seemingly kindly retiree, they’ve angered some dangerous and violent people. Peter Dinklage is low-key chilling as a volatile Russian mobster with a proclivity for pastries, and Chris Messina has a tremendous scene as his smooth-talking lawyer, who strides into Marla’s office and tries to buy her off before resorting to threats. The snappy and increasingly intense exchange, with both actors matching each other barb for barb, is the film’s highlight.

Blakeson’s come up with such an original idea here, and he’s presented it in a way that’s both slick and vivid. Sure, the blithe, parasitic nature of these characters is disturbing, but the verve of the storytelling on display keeps you hooked, as does the ever-versatile Pike. She’s captivating in her confidence and her ability to outmaneuver everyone, every time. Marla is a despicable human being, and while you won’t exactly find yourself rooting for her to succeed, you’ll at least be curious as to whether she can pull off her most outlandish scheme yet. And then once we realize who Jennifer Peterson really is—and who she’s connected to—Wiest reveals a character who’s hilariously sharp through the haze of medications she probably doesn’t even need.

“Don’t get fooled by old people,” Marla tells Fran as they discover the multitudes their latest ward contains. “Even sadistic, immoral assholes get old.”

But the detached, bemused tone that sustains the film for so long eventually gives way to actual feelings—to its detriment—as this dark comedy steadily turns just plain dark. Pike can do anything, and this is her juiciest role since “ Gone Girl ,” but “I Care a Lot” becomes less interesting when her character starts allowing emotions like fear to seep through. We don’t need justification for Marla’s heinous acts; simply making her a monster makes a stronger point. And eventually, she becomes superhuman in the face of real physical danger, which we’re just supposed to go with—as if her scrappy, hungry nature makes her a survivor in every situation.

But she does pull off a cool trick involving a knocked-out tooth and a jug of milk that may be useful someday, so if you learn anything at all from watching “I Care a Lot,” make sure it’s this handy (and wholesome) tidbit.

Now playing on Netflix.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

I Care a Lot (2021)

118 minutes

Rosamund Pike as Marla Grayson

Peter Dinklage as Roman Lunyov

Eiza González as Fran

Dianne Wiest as Jennifer Peterson

Chris Messina as Dean Ericson

Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Judge Lomax

Macon Blair as Feldstrom

Alicia Witt as Dr. Amos

Cinematographer

• Doug Emmett
• Mark Eckersley
• Marc Canham

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I Care a Lot

A crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of her elderly wards meets her match when a woman she tries to swindle turns out to be more than she first appears. A crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of her elderly wards meets her match when a woman she tries to swindle turns out to be more than she first appears. A crooked legal guardian who drains the savings of her elderly wards meets her match when a woman she tries to swindle turns out to be more than she first appears.

• Rosamund Pike
• Peter Dinklage
• Eiza González
• 4.5K User reviews
• 227 Critic reviews
• 66 Metascore
• 1 win & 6 nominations

Top cast 80

• Marla Grayson

• Roman Lunyov

• Jennifer Peterson

• Dean Ericson

• Judge Lomax

• Dr. Karen Amos

• Alexi Ignatyev

• Police Detective

• The Assassin
• The Jeweler

• TV Interviewer

• Sam Rice's Assistant

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia When Marla Grayson is on the phone with Sam Rice, he asks her if she has heard of the Milgram experiment, which references a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram where subjects obeyed authority figures (i.e. giving electric shocks to people) regardless of possible consequences.
• Goofs Marla is drugged and filled up with alcohol before being put into a staged car accident. Despite being made unconscious by the alcohol a few minutes earlier, she succeeds in escaping a sunken car, and then swimming out and walking to a shop where she only gives an indication of being cold.

Marla Grayson : Every fortune ever accumulated started with a leap of faith. But before you take that leap, first take a long, hard look at yourself. Know who you are. Ask yourself: am I an insider? Or am I an outsider? Am I a lamb? or am I a lion? Am I a predator or am I a prey? Am I good at money? or Am I good at people? What am I willing to sacrifice to achieve my dreams? What lines will I not cross? Don't try to be anyone else. Just know who you are and use that to your advantage.

• Connections Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Best Movies of 2021 (So Far) (2021)
• Soundtracks Dirge Written by Graham Cassie, Simon Harper, David Harper, Richard Fearless (as Richard Maguire), Daniel Whittock, John Yorke , Tim Holmes & Dot Allison (as Dorothy Allison) Published by Deconstruction Songs Ltd. obo Complete Music Ltd, Warner Chappell Music Ltd (PRS), all rights on behalf of Warner Chappell Music Ltd administered by WC Music Corp and Air Edel Associates Ltd Performed by Death In Vegas Licensed courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

User reviews 4.5K

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• Feb 26, 2021
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• February 19, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
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• Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $14,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 1 hour 58 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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Review: Rosamund Pike’s in peak form in the crafty but muddled Netflix thriller ‘I Care a Lot’

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Not too long into “I Care a Lot,” a comic thriller with a delectably hard shell and a soft, hollow center, you might wonder if someone managed to slip in an outtake or two from “Gone Girl.” Like that earlier tale of crime and punishment, though with less gore and more glib, the movie stars Rosamund Pike as a woman whose impeccable poise and radiant smile could fool you into overlooking some of her other attributes: ruthless persistence, killer negotiation skills and a quiet mastery of the long con. Even Pike’s breathily cynical narration seems to channel her “Gone Girl” monologues, though the tough Hobbesian worldview she advances here could have used a sharper rewrite: “There’s two types of people in this world,” she notes early on, “the people who take and those getting took.”

Those are the words of Marla Grayson (Pike), a taker and proud of it. She runs a lucrative scam as a court-appointed (but really self-imposed) guardian for elderly wards of the state, and as such she has a smooth bedside manner and a gift for coaxing others into submission, the viewer included. Even when she scoffs in our direction (“You think you’re good people? You’re not good people”), the insult isn’t meant to shame us so much as liberate us. Sit back, the movie insists, and enjoy the guilt-free spectacle of horrible people doing horrible things to arguably even more horrible people, then having still more horrible things done to them in return, and so on and so on until the hand of fate or God or the writer-director J Blakeson swoops in to settle scores and divvy up the spoils.

And for a while at least, Blakeson makes enjoyment easy enough, aided by a lead actor with an undeniable knack for slick, conspiratorial villainy. In this movie’s vision of present-day America as a late-capitalist shark tank, Marla is an unusually sleek and lethal barracuda. With the help of Fran (Eiza González), her partner in crime and romance, plus key accomplices at hospitals and assisted-living facilities, Marla targets wealthy older individuals who are too sick and helpless — or who, with a little creative paperwork, can be made to look too sick and helpless — to handle their personal affairs. She effectively takes them captive, divesting them of their assets and turning a tidy profit for all involved. None of which makes Marla an easy character to root for, which would be less of a problem if “I Care a Lot” didn’t so clearly want you to root for her.

Being lured into a sense of complicity with unapologetically evil people is one of the reliable pleasures of the movies, but wanting the robbers to pull off a heist is a far cry from, you know, cheering on elder abuse. The movie, perhaps realizing the difficulty of the assignment, preemptively stacks the deck in Marla’s favor. When a plaintiff, Feldstrom (Macon Blair), rails against Marla for denying him access to his mother, her well-practiced, level-headed response — that she takes better care of her charges than their own children do, because she actually gets paid to do it — is meant to elicit your outrage, yes, but also your laughter and, eventually, your grudging admiration. It helps that Feldstrom is presented as a ranting, emasculated loser with a violent streak, all the better for Marla to position herself, none too persuasively, as some kind of feminist avenger — and also to keep you from thinking too hard about the human consequences of her ruse.

That fraught initial confrontation sets a pattern for the rest of the movie. Blakeson likes to underline Marla’s audacity, her determination to win at any cost, only to turn around and emphasize her vulnerability, forcing her into deadly situations that are invariably of her own making. Her next unsuspecting target is a woman named Jennifer (Dianne Wiest, gimlet-eyed as ever), who is identified, in guardian-grifter lingo, as a “cherry” — an ideal mark, with a beautiful house, serious savings and no apparent family. But not long after this perfectly healthy, capable woman is declared incompetent and locked up in a nursing home, in scenes that are inescapably upsetting to watch, it becomes alarmingly clear that she’s not the docile, no-strings-attached target she appeared.

I’ll tread lightly around the plot from here, since nasty surprises — and Marla’s uncanny ability to anticipate and sometimes intercept them — are part of the putative fun. A few colorful supporting players turn up, among them a sleazeball lawyer (a terrific, underused Chris Messina) and, in time, a powerful gangster, Roman (an amusing Peter Dinklage), who has a foul temper that he always seems to rein in at the last minute. Not unlike Marla, Roman doesn’t really want to see the world burn or make anyone suffer beyond the requisite collateral damage. He just wants to run his racket and earn his millions, and he doesn’t understand why everyone around him insists on making that so difficult.

He and Marla make nifty odd-couple adversaries, signaled by their physical disparities and contrasting vices. (She vapes incessantly; he likes high-end pastries.) But the amiable rogues’ gallery aside, “I Care a Lot” is pretty much a one-woman show for Pike, who works in a constricted emotional range but a boundless physical one. In her courtroom scenes she’s like a sentinel, standing tall and never putting a foot or an argument wrong, with a perfectly cut bob that frames her face like an ancient war helmet. A later hospital scene finds her even more in her element: a Nurse Ratched in high heels.

More chameleonlike shades, in other words, of “Gone Girl” — which, incidentally, would have made a fine alternate title for Blakeson’s 2009 debut feature, “The Disappearance of Alice Creed.” Here, as in that crafty abduction thriller, the director savors the mechanics of entrapment and escape; he delights in putting his characters through the wringer and watching them wriggle their way out. Along with his uniformly sharp collaborators — they include cinematographer Doug Emmett, editor Mark Eckersley and composer Marc Canham, who wrote the synth-heavy score — he fashions “I Care a Lot” into a swift, engrossing exercise in suspense, propelled by busy, outlandish twists from which you can glean the occasional flash of satire or emotion.

Those flashes are welcome; they’re also not quite enough. You’ve likely read a thing or two recently about crooked conservatorships in the celebrity sphere, though whether those headlines make “I Care a Lot” seem like an unusually topical entertainment or expose it as a thin, opportunistic hustle is open to debate. The movie itself seems confused on the matter: It belatedly tries to grow a heart in its closing scenes, tossing off its snarky, self-satisfied cynicism and making a half-hearted lurch toward catharsis. It wants you to care, more than it cares to admit.

‘I Care a Lot’

Rated: R, for language throughout and some violence Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes Playing: Starts Feb. 19 on Netflix

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I Care A Lot Review

Guardian angle..

I Care A Lot is available to stream on Netflix.

Golden Globe winner Rosamund Pike heads up a biting, bouncy cat-and-mouse thriller about a cold con artist who, determined to be rich at all costs, abuses the elderly, essentially forcing the most vulnerable to be her legal wards so she can rob them of everything and confine them to nursing homes. And she's the hero, ostensibly, in I Care A Lot: a swampy satire-noir out to reward the most black-hearted and cruel. It’s a wholly ugly story, but it all lands very well because of a mirthful tone and dark humor. Buried behind this devilish tale is the idea that mass wealth can only be achieved immorally and that those willing to shed their empathy (while faking it in public) will rise, but mostly this is a fun, grim pissing contest punctuated by fine performances and an off-kilter electronic score.

Opting to not go overboard with heavy messaging about our broken systems and warped values and instead showcasing a sociopath who's been built, brick by brick, by the worst of modern American culture, director J Blakeson's wonderfully maddening movie is able to create a playground out of our moral ruin. A sort of "grifter New Jack City,” I Care A Lot pits two desperate forces against each other: the criminal vs. the technically legal but brazenly immoral.

When the dust settles there's no takeaway other than "we're all screwed" – but the dance itself is volatile and vulgar enough that it makes for a good, ruthless romp. And, if nothing else, it'll make you more conscious of your elderly parents and the predators circling them.

There's no takeaway other than "we're all screwed."As the malicious Marla Grayson, who feels profoundly honorable while exploiting and torturing the elderly, Pike presents us with a villain in plain sight; one who doesn't have to dodge the raindrops because our society's already given her a giant umbrella. As the leader of a network of inhuman thieves, Marla is someone you want to see fall, and fall hard – her and her entire network of poachers.

What's the best con artist movie?

But I Care A Lot never quite gives us that satisfaction, any least not in the ways we might want (or when we want them). No, Marla is the visionary here – the irresistible force to Peter Dinklage's immovable object – instilled with the "never give up" credo that our country seems to laud, no matter what dire plan it's fueling.

Marla is the visionary here – the irresistible force to Peter Dinklage's immovable object.Pike is pitch-perfect as Marla, coating her with just enough humanity and humor that you might find yourself actually rooting for her, in spare occasions. Similar to what happens with most of her foes, Marla's resolve aims to wear you down to the point where you contemplate joining her instead of defeating her. And Dinklage, who plays (without giving away too much) a powerful someone who becomes wise to Marla's grift and has an active stake in ending it, discovers just how merciless the American Dream can be.

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The first act of I Care A Lot makes you think the movie will be about one thing before zig-zagging into a twisty thriller that eventually morphs into a third genre. And the transitions work because they all involve Marla on the precipice of devastation, and Blakeson wisely bets on our need for justice, in various forms, to make the shifts feel smoother. All in all, it's probably best that the movie didn't weigh itself down with warnings about elder care since fragility and subtlety aren't the aesthetic here.

You might be surprised how uncomfortable I Care A Lot makes you at the outset, before it steers more into noir territory, or that it doesn't have much more to say about elder abuse than what it initially dangles in front of you. Overall, though, this contest of wicked wills is a vibrant, penetrating Pandora's Box of predicaments and likeable yet evil central characters, played with satirical skill by Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage. Characters who, to varying degrees, the movie does its best to trick you into rooting for – against your better instincts – as they step on whoever they have to to get to the top.

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‘I Care a Lot’ Review: Rosamund Pike Returns to Her Hilariously Icy Amy Dunne Best in Pulpy Thriller

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix releases the film on its streaming platform on Friday, February 19.

Filmmaker J Blakeson makes one fatal flaw in his darkly funny thriller “ I Care a Lot ,” an understandable misstep because it seems like such a fundamental addition to any film: he tries to humanize his characters. While the film’s first half leans into the icy, often hilarious villainy of such very bad people as a ponytailed crime boss played by Peter Dinklage, a smarmy lawyer (Chris Messina) who dresses as if Colonel Sanders was a stand-up comedian, and star Rosamund Pike , returning to her frosty “Gone Girl” best, its messy final act attempts a brief foray into making some of these outsize monsters more civilized. What a mistake, because “I Care a Lot,” a pulpy social thriller that might be better suited for midnight movie positioning, is at its most purely enjoyable when it’s leaning right into just how very, very bad people can be.

“There’s no such thing as good people,” Marla Grayson (Pike) sneers during the film’s opening credits, as she introduces the closest thing she has to a personal ethos. Most of what we learn about Marla’s life before her turn into ice-queen insanity is delivered in those early moments, as she announces during voiceover that, in a world where you’re predator or prey, she’s “a fucking lioness.” Clearly the product of some self-reinvention — Marla makes mention once of being poor, and damn if she will ever feel impoverished again — Marla’s life is glossy, slick, and deeply unwell. That’s exactly how she likes it.

A professional, court-appointed legal guardian, Marla makes her bones “caring” for old folks who have nobody else to do it (or, in the case of Macon Blair’s desperate son, no one that Marla and her cronies think is suitable for the gig). Marla and her professional and personal partner Fran (Eiza González) have a pretty good racket going: their doctor pal Dr. Amos (Alicia Witt) clues them in on ailing elderly people who would benefit (sure) from being tossed into a retirement home, where Marla can control every aspect of their lives (read: mostly financial).

When Marla and Fran pick up new client Jennifer Peterson (the matchless Dianne Wiest), Blakeson shows us exactly what the pair are capable of, which is nothing short of horrifying. Once Dr. Amos lets the gals know that Jennifer is a “cherry” — well-heeled, totally alone, losing her mental faculties — they move quickly, getting a court order that changes Jennifer’s entire life without her knowledge, sticking her in a home, and setting about selling off all her belongings. With a slight twist in either direction, “I Care a Lot” could be a horror film or a wrenching drama, but Blakeson’s dark humor keeps it feeling, even in its worst moments, hugely entertaining.

Most of that is due to Pike, again capturing the cold, often very funny sociopathic tendencies of Amy Dunne in David Fincher’s vicious “Gone Girl” adaptation. No one is having as much fun as Pike here, gliding through self-made carnage in crisp monochromatic suits and spotless sneakers, utterly untouched by the pain she’s inflicting. While Pike has enjoyed a career that’s been quite varied and often sadly overlooked — both a “Bond girl” and an Oscar nominee, she’s done everything from biopics to streaming series, period pieces to flashy action films, and she’s consistently been the best thing in just about all of them — she remains known to most audiences for her awards-winning turn in “Gone Girl.” It’s easy to imagine an alternate cinematic world in which Amy went on to become Marla.

But even Marla isn’t infallible in her chilly machinations, and it turns out that Jennifer Peterson might not be totally alone. While “I Care a Lot” is compelling enough as a study of Marla and her strange world, Blakeson attempts to move it into pulpier, wackier territory. Who could possibly take down Marla? Perhaps someone like Dinklage, striking the same balance of evil and amusing, along with his creepy-fun lawyer (Messina) and a henchman (Nicholas Logan) who looks perpetually ready to jump out of his own skin.

Blakeson’s script piles on the complications fast and furious — an entire subplot about millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds is about seventh on the list of “big things that happen” in its second act — but at least they keep his growing cadre of characters on their toes. As Marla and Fran grapple with the realization that even they might be in over their heads this time, Blakeson similarly struggles with keeping all his crazy ideas in working order. Eventually, the film tips into something close to sentimentality, and Marla (“fucking lioness” Marla!) is forced to drop her shield and appeal to the kind of emotion she’s so far eschewed.

It’s not that we don’t want to see Marla succeed, but “I Care a Lot” is, by its own earliest admissions, a film about how no one is good, and trying to twist that nihilism into empathy dilutes its dark power. Hell, it even dilutes Marla, at least for a bit, until Blakeson and Pike kick the sentimentality and go whole-hog nutso. (A scene in which Marla, soaking wet after a seriously rough night, blithely strolls into a mini mart, grabs a carton of milk, and deposits a recently dislodged tooth into it for safekeeping seems destined to go down as a Pike all-timer.)

Twists abound, and while they don’t always pay off, at least “I Care a Lot” cares enough to deliver a full, bloody meal of a film for anyone intrigued by the allure of anti-heroes. Blakeson occasionally pushes things too far, and the film’s conclusion is a bizarre mishmash of obvious callbacks, enough exposition to power a whole other feature, and blunt social commentary. It’s a lot, surely, but no one does too much with just enough than Pike.

“I Care a Lot” premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. 

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‘I Care a Lot’ Review: The Art of the Steal

Nasty people do terrible things in this wildly entertaining Netflix caper about guardianship fraud.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Bookended by towering stilettos and a guillotine-blade bob, Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) strides through “I Care a Lot” with the icy confidence of the inveterate fraud. Her racket is guardianship: identifying powerless retirees, having them falsely declared mentally incompetent and herself appointed their legal conservator.

A network of enablers — including an unscrupulous doctor and an oblivious judge — grease the grift as Marla and her personal and business partner (Eiza González) happen upon Jennifer (Dianne Wiest). With a healthy nest egg and no apparent relatives, Jennifer is a “cherry”; and one chilling, all-too-believable sequence later, she has been secured in an assisted-living facility and her considerable assets liquidated. Marla, however, is about to discover she has messed with the wrong old lady.

An unexpectedly gripping thriller that seesaws between comedy and horror, “I Care a Lot” is cleverly written (by the director, J Blakeson) and wonderfully cast. Marla is an almost cartoonish sociopath, and Pike leans into her villainy with unwavering bravado. And Wiest is sly perfection: Watch as Jennifer, drugged and smirking, spits an unprintable curse at her tormentor before putting her in a headlock. But it’s the introduction of an inscrutable Russian gangster (Peter Dinklage, all cool intelligence and wounded-puppy eyes) that gives Marla a worthy foil and the plot a reason to climax.

With its ice-pick dialogue and gleefully ironic title, “I Care a Lot” is a slick, savage caper with roots in a real-world scam ( as an episode of the Netflix series “Dirty Money” recounts ). An overlong, somewhat mushy middle section made me fear Blakeson was losing his nerve. I was wrong.

I Care a Lot Rated R for killing, cursing and elder abuse. Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes. Watch on Netflix .

Review: Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage face off in Netflix's biting, darkly funny 'I Care a Lot'

Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage are so good at giving us characters we love to hate – she in “ Gone Girl ,” he in “Game of Thrones” – that it’s wickedly satisfying to watch them tussle while at the top of their games in “I Care a Lot.”

Written and directed by J Blakeson (“The Disappearance of Alice Creed”), the dark crime comedy/thriller (★★★½ out of four; rated R; streaming Friday on Netflix) is a genre-exploding effort that’s awash in ethical quandaries and is severely lacking in good guys.

That’s kind of the point, though: On one hand, the core conceit – about elderly people suffering thanks to crooks and legal loopholes – is upsetting and infuriating on the surface. But Blakeson puts such a colorful, over-the-top sheen on it, plus lets Pike and Dinklage loose on each other, that you can’t help but be entertained by the criminal carnage and extreme shenanigans.

Marla Grayson (Pike) is an audacious grifter who, in her words, “cares.” With her lover/partner Fran (Eiza Gonzalez), Marla runs an operation where she takes over the legal guardianship of older folks who, after some courtroom wrangling and accomplices in the right places, are deemed unable to take care of themselves. The aging wards end up trapped in a facility, and while they’re drugged into submission, Marla and Fran bill them and sell off possessions until the money machine runs out or they die.

They’ve got it down to a cruel science, and when one of their client dies after a stroke, a swank room opens up to place another victim. And this one’s a rare “cherry”: Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) is a wealthy retired businesswoman with no family or heirs – and a medical diagnosis that the morally warped can make work in their favor. But Marla has railroaded the wrong person this time, and she runs afoul of someone close to the older woman, a smoothie-drinking gangster named Roman (Dinklage).

Marla proves a formidable foil for him, and vice versa, but Roman has no mercy when it comes to putting the shady conservator in her place. They engage in a violent cat-and-mouse game that takes its toll on both players and causes shifting loyalties for the audience. Sometimes you’ll root for Roman, sometimes (shockingly) for Marla, and they even surprise each other with the devotion to their causes. “Your determination is scary,” Roman tells her with begrudging respect.

It’s a perfect role for Dinklage and one that mines his engaging charisma and gravitas. Roman manages to be an even more enigmatic presence than his “Thrones” antihero Tyrion Lannister, yet Dinklage also gives him a vulnerability that can’t help but emerge from a steely facade.

Marla also puts up a front, though hers is nigh impenetrable. In Pike’s best performance since 2014’s “Gone Girl,” she rules the proceedings as a flawed character who’s flawless when it comes to gaming the system. And woe be unto anyone who gets in her way: When Roman sends a smarmy lawyer (Chris Messina) to shake her down, he gets a large dose of her righteous (at least in her mind) anger: In one of the movie’s cooler visuals, smoke comes out of Marla’s nose – the product of her vaping habit – and she looks like a cartoon bull about ready to gore an underestimating foe.

Blakeson’s character development is a slight issue; Marla and Roman are the most fleshed-out people, and you get only a tease as to their origins. (The fact that they are mysteries does add to each of their legends, however.) The director’s biting satire and well-paced plot are on point, however, and “I Care a Lot” provides an immersive, sometimes quirky narrative with a boffo ending you will definitely dig a lot.

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Rosamund Pike’s Thriller ‘I Care a Lot’ Is Still on Netflix’s Top 10 List—Here’s My Honest Review

*Warning: Minor spoilers ahead*

If you loved Gone Girl , then feast your eyes on Rosamund Pike’s latest psychological thriller: I Care a Lo t . The movie hit Netflix last month, and it’s managed to hold a spot on the streaming service’s list of most-watched movies ever since.

I Care a Lot has been getting critical acclaim for its gripping storyline that kept me guessing until the very end. Right when you think it’s going to do a deep dive into the corruption within the caregiver industry, the movie does a complete 180 and turns into a thrilling story about a mysterious case of identity theft.

So, what is I Care a Lot about? And is it worth the watch? Keep reading for my honest review of Netflix ’s new hit movie.

1. What Is 'i Care A Lot' About?

Where do I even begin? I Care a Lot introduces viewers to Marla Grayson (Pike), who works as a court-appointed guardian for dozens of elderly wards. The problem? Marla is conning the system by targeting wealthy retirees with no living heirs (AKA “cherries”) and then seizing all their assets.

When an assisted living facility alerts her to an opening, Marla immediately jumps at the opportunity to nominate Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest). Based on her research, Jennifer lives alone and has no living family members, making her an ideal candidate.

Right on cue, a taxi driver shows up at Jennifer’s house shortly after she’s taken to the elderly facility. As it turns out, Jennifer isn’t who she says she is. She’s been assuming the identity of a young girl who died of polio several decades ago, which means that all her personal information—including her lack of family—is false.

I won’t give away too many spoilers, but when Peter Dinklage shows up on the scene in an unforgettable role, he will stop at nothing to free Jennifer and repossess her assets—even if it means teaming up with an unlikely partner in crime.

2. Is It Worth The Watch?

Without a doubt, yes. At first, I wasn’t sure where the movie was heading, since it seemed to highlight one bad apple (Marla) in a highly commendable profession (caregiving). However, I didn’t enjoy the movie because I thought it was an accurate portrayal of guardianship. Instead, I was intrigued because the plot kept me guessing every step of the way.

As someone who’s seen a lot—I repeat, a lot—of movies, it’s rare that I don’t predict the ending or, at the very least, one aspect of the storyline. The same can’t be said for I Care a Lot , since the conclusion left me shook . Not only did the film keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time, but it also left me wanting more.

It’s important to note that I Care a Lot isn’t appropriate for viewers of all ages. There’s some foul language (in addition to nudity) that isn’t suitable for youngsters, so be sure to put on Cocomelon in the other room if the kiddos are within earshot.

Oh, and Pike won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical). Need I say more?

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Netflix's 'I Care a Lot' Has Divided the Internet

Reactions to that twist ending are...mixed, to say the least.

The audience reviews of  Netflix's new comedy-drama-thriller   I Care a Lot  are in, and they're...pinballing wildly from "best film of the year" to "most disturbing film of the year," with nothing in between. Who knew a darkly funny movie about a conniving sociopath with a blunt bob that could cut glass and a penchant for defrauding senior citizens by posing as a caring legal guardian before draining their assets into her own account could cause such mixed reactions!

Perhaps the most striking example of the vast spectrum of opinions about  I Care a Lot  comes from its Rotten Tomatoes  analysis . While the movie has easily been "certified fresh" due to an impressive 81 percent positivity rating from 136 professional critics' reviews, its audience score is a paltry 35 percent positive, accounting for more than 1,000 ratings from casual viewers. While critics and normies alike have almost uniformly praised Rosamund Pike's performance as the aforementioned con woman—for which she was also nominated for a Golden Globe—the shocking twist ending seems to have left a particularly bitter taste in the mouths of the latter group, who have taken to social media en masse to air their grievances with the film. Here's a sampling of some of the most dramatic reactions to  I Care a Lot .

Some were absolutely horrified:

This I care a lot movie irritated tf out of me February 23, 2021

did people expect me to enjoy the i care a lot ending and be happy marla got what she deserved?? i watched it for the hot milf not for moral integrity February 22, 2021

Who else has been enraged by I Care A Lot on Netflix? February 23, 2021

Omg this show is horrifying.. !!CAN THIS really happen? Netflix I CARE A LOT February 22, 2021

I Care A Lot is just a freight train of a movie. February 22, 2021

watched I Care a Lot pic.twitter.com/2LZWjjsUhv February 22, 2021

I Care A Lot on Netflix is crazy and lowkey infuriating to watch lol One, cuz of the premise, but two, cuz privileged, uppity white women are really on some crazy/dumb shit 😂🤦🏻‍♂️ The mafia is definitely the hero in the movie don’t try to convince me otherwise 🙄🥴🤷🏻‍♂️😂 February 19, 2021

25 minutes in to ' I Care A Lot' on Netflix & my blood pressure is steaming hot!!! #ICareALotNetflix pic.twitter.com/GLwSG0AJhE February 24, 2021

20 mins into I Care A Lot and I am LIVID February 23, 2021

Y’all want to be pissed off by a movie watch “ I care a lot” ... smfh February 23, 2021

when I see ppl saying I care a lot had a good ending pic.twitter.com/fD6IF90ZJy February 24, 2021

i care a lot !! wow !! chefs kiss pic.twitter.com/3g2QJmGW3m February 24, 2021

I Care A Lot seems like the movie version of a person who warns you about their dark sense of humor when they're just an asshole. February 23, 2021

I'm about 15 mins into "I Care a Lot" and I feel sick. I used to work in the Community Mental Health system and know all about the evil of the court appointed guardianship machine. I sure know how to feed my anger monster. 🤬🤮 February 25, 2021

"I care a lot" is something no one will ever say about any of the characters in I CARE A LOT February 24, 2021

While others were all for it:

morals leaving my body while rooting for marla grayson on I Care a Lot pic.twitter.com/EBdXxgfBbo February 22, 2021

I Care A Lot one of the best movies released in months pic.twitter.com/Oq87sLXmyq February 19, 2021

I Care A Lot was a cautionary tale about Girl Bossing too hard. February 22, 2021

Me at the end of I Care A Lot #ICareALotNetflix pic.twitter.com/KLTgpOPpjc February 22, 2021

The movie “I care a lot” on Netflix is such a good movie. Take care of your parents and grandparents at all cost. February 22, 2021

I Care A Lot is Uncut Gems but for girlbosses send tweet February 23, 2021

Seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed I Care A Lot. Sometimes a movie can be compelling and not have a single character that you’re meant to cheer for. I found it to be unpredictable and suspenseful. February 23, 2021

"I Care a Lot" kind of functions as a Guy Ritchie movie. Funny, absurd, and over the top. But most importantly, super fun. Rosamund Pike is amazing! ★★★½ pic.twitter.com/Vd6ABeVZA9 February 22, 2021

Me at the ending of “I Care A Lot” on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/tlacM6xyzw February 24, 2021

“I Care A Lot” ended perfectly 😚 February 24, 2021

I’m scared that nothing I watch from now on is gonna be as good as I Care A Lot. Literally the most incredible thing I’ve seen in so long. February 23, 2021

But at least we can all agree that Rosamund Pike was born to play charming sociopaths:

I wasn’t prepared for how silly I Care A Lot was going to be, but it’s a lot of fun. Rosamund Pike, as many have said, is on Gone Girl form with some killer line deliveries throughout. Chris Messina threatens to steal the whole thing, but it’s really good, Pike-centric fun. 8/10 pic.twitter.com/rEJALzgE0N February 19, 2021

I’m like 10 minutes into I Care A Lot and Rosamund Pike’s hair is absolutely fascinating. It’s freakishly perfect. February 23, 2021

The way she played the same character in both movies I care a lot is a sequel to gone girl pic.twitter.com/blO0ah5pL6 February 23, 2021

the unhinged rosamund pike with a bob cut cinematic universe pic.twitter.com/YWTFxkoaU6 February 21, 2021

Rosamund Pike has gifted us with the comedic companion to Gone Girl in I Care A Lot, a twisted and brilliant movie I totally did not see coming. Now on Netflix pic.twitter.com/ruTtEBhOBt February 19, 2021

gone girl i care a lot pic.twitter.com/R2dTvo9oJT February 24, 2021

Rosamund Pike in 'I Care a Lot'... that's it, that's the tweet pic.twitter.com/DUZtgYWxx9 February 23, 2021

the unhinged rosamund pike cinematic universe i care a lot (2021) dir. j blakeson pic.twitter.com/8uD8JgqCSz February 24, 2021

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The Reactions to Netflix's I Care a Lot Are Both Horrified and Kinda Thirsty

The film is touching a nerve with Netflix viewers, who are simultaneously scandalized by Marla’s sociopathy, enamored of her razor-sharp blonde bob, and mystified by that shocking twist ending.

I Care A Lot centers on Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), a seemingly saintly entrepreneur who runs a thriving business as a court-appointed guardian for elderly individuals who can no longer manage their own care. But there’s a catch: Marla is systematically defrauding her vulnerable clients, conspiring alongside doctors and nursing home administrators to identify susceptible targets, seize legal control of their lives, then auction off their assets to pay herself for her services. The film depicts a very real scam rocking eldercare across the country, where an estimated one to three million American seniors live under guardianship, which may or may not serve their best interests.

The film is touching a nerve with Netflix viewers, who are simultaneously scandalized by Marla’s sociopathy, enamored of her razor-sharp blonde bob, stanning her relationship with her girlfriend, and mystified by that shocking twist ending. We took Twitter’s temperature about the film, which resulted in a very fun mixed bag.

Fans are fired up.

But not everyone is loving it., viewers fell hard for the lesbian love story at the heart of the film., some viewers feel that marla’s vape is the secret mvp of the film., or maybe it’s her haircut, fans couldn’t help but make comparisons to other movies and television shows., marla preserving her lost tooth in a jug of milk is sending fans., about that twist ending....

@media(max-width: 73.75rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.4375rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.5625rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}} Movies

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The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions.

I read some reviews about I Care A Lot and started thinking: Should a movie be criticized just because it is unrealistic?

Disclaimer: I don’t browse this sub often and this is my first post, so I hope I am not breaking any rules.

*There are no spoilers below apart from the fact that the movie is unrealistic.

I just watched the movie I Care a Lot and while watching it, I noticed very weird, unrealistic stuff happening. They didn’t irritate me or something, just kept on watching and finished the movie. Although I was not fully satisfied with the 2 hours spent, it was okay. I mean, the acting was great. There was a plot, a very unrealistic one, but hey it was a ‘well I don’t have anything better to do right now’ type of movie. The 2 hours didn’t feel like it was 24 hours, it didn’t fly by either.

I opened up IMDB to rate the movie a solid 6/10. Scrolled through some reviews and aaaaaaaaaall of them were complaints about how unrealistic the movie was. Kept scrolling through and there were more complaints and more... Which brings us to my question.. Does a movie HAVE to be realistic to be rated well? I mean, isn’t it a MOVIE after all? When does a movie cross the line of realism where you start thinking ‘okay this movie is complete bs’?

I understand the difference between a fiction movie which is meant to be unrealistic, or raise some what ifs in the viewer’s minds. But why is this particular movie cannot be treated as a fiction or a fantasy, when it comes to reviews?

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I Care A Lot Review

19 Feb 2021

I Care A Lot

I Care A Lot could easily have been called ‘This Is Where Late-Stage Capitalism Gets You, Suckers’, or quite simply: ‘Christ: People Are Dreadful’. Because really, they are. If this film has a message, this is it.

The most dreadful (probably, maybe) of all is Marla Grayson ( Rosamund Pike ), a guardian/conservator, who turns up at the house of OAP Jennifer Peterson ( Dianne Wiest ) with police officers in tow and says, “The court has ruled that you require assistance in taking care of yourself,” before, under the guise of dementia, carting her off to a senior living facility.

But Blakeson, it turns out, is far more interested in subverting the signifiers of filmmaking than reinforcing them.

As Jennifer unwillingly walks through the doors that are swiftly locked behind her, she’s greeted by static smiling staff, dressed all in white, holding balloons in welcome. While she’s medicated and held against her will, Marla, now in control of her assets, goes about selling her home and everything in it — with help from girlfriend and associate-in- crime Fran ( Eiza González ).

The first act is J Blakeson’s ( The Disappearance Of Alice Creed ) pure pulpy take on this Kafka-esque nightmare. Marla — built cell by cell from ambition and greed — is the American Dream writ large and taken to its logical, if twisted, conclusion. "There are lions and lambs in this world," she says, in an opening narration. “And I’m a fucking lioness,” before concluding later, “I want to be rich… really fucking rich.”

Marla has deafening echoes of not just Gone Girl ’s Amy Dunne (a blunt, sliced blonde bob; the icy, clipped voiceover) but also Nicole Kidman ’s Suzanne Stone in To Die For . She sacrifices her own humanity in the craven pursuit of wealth, only hitting a wall in her seemingly unstoppable quest when it transpires that Jennifer isn’t in fact a “cherry” (a victim with “no kids, no living family”), but the mother of a Russian Mob boss (a delicious Peter Dinklage ). “I’m the worst mistake you’ve ever made,” smiles Wiest, at her terrifying matriarch-on-sedatives best.

Her son’s arrival suggests a well-trod narrative is about to be triggered: of rescue, revenge, of righting wrongs. But Blakeson , it turns out, is far more interested in subverting the signifiers of filmmaking than reinforcing them. No character bends when they’re supposed to bend, begs when they’re told to get on their knees. There is, it has to be said, something entirely thrilling about seeing a woman who should be in fear of her life shrug it off with a smile and say, “You can’t get a woman to do what you want, then you call her a bitch and threaten to kill her.”

And while the writer/director doesn’t always remain in full control of the story and tone, the ride is so wild and entertaining that it doesn’t particularly matter when the wheels come off. This film has much to say about the corrupting nature of the American Dream, elder exploitation, the futility of capitalism and a healthcare system that puts profits before people. And sure, all of that’s in there, but really, what it boils down to is something much more simple: Christ: People Are Dreadful.

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“I Care A Lot” Netflix Movie Review by Josh Davis

Published by Leftover Brian

March 3, 2021 10:49 am |

“It’s been fun” is the last line of dialog in “I Care a Lot,” a movie billed as both a mystery, thriller and a comedy.  

It’s not a comedy – at least this reviewer can’t see how it is – and it’s hardly a “fun” movie either.  

Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”) stars as Marla Grayson, a professional caretaker of elderly people who exploits them to make a profit. She has medical professionals in her pocket and a local judge convinced that she, like the title implies, cares a lot and always acts in the best interest of her wards.  

She does not.  

The movie doesn’t tease this premise, but quickly sets up Marla as the villain. In the opening scene, she proclaims she is “not a lamb – I am a fucking lioness,” as she struts through a courtroom and games the system, her uber-Karen haircut as razor sharp as her cruelty.  

Not long after, Marla finds a “cherry” target in Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest, “The Birdcage, “Edward Scissorhands”), an older woman who owns a home and has a sizable nest egg, but no clear family to care for her.  

Marla and her girlfriend (Eiza González, “Baby Driver”) get Jennifer sent to strict care facility called Berkshire Oak, and then they go through the photos, jewelry and financial records at Jennifer’s $1.5 million home. They sell her furniture at auction and put her house up for sale. It’s gross and deplorable, but there’s a catch.  

Jennifer, it turns out, is the mother of a powerful mafia boss, Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”). Of course, he’s pissed and wants his mother back, but Marla is able to stay one step ahead of the situation because Jennifer lives under a fake identity and has no legal ties to her son, and because Marla is so expert at what she does. Marla also senses a big score, especially when she finds a cache of diamonds in Jennifer’s safety deposit box.  

Pike is frightening and frighteningly good as Marla, a woman who abhors poverty and will do anything to make herself rich – including ruining the lives of dozens of helpless senior citizens.  

Dinklage is also excellent here, often quite menacing, but also showing off some dynamite dark comedy chops in the few minutes of levity in the film.  

There’s definitely a caper feel, and a few beats of “I Care a Lot” feel like they’re about to take a Tarantino or a Cohen brothers turn into sadistic or ironic comedy. But those moments are never fully realized.  

Instead, this is a villain’s movie. Marla is clearly the bad guy and what she’s doing is utterly vile, but it’s also utterly glorified as the filmmakers repeatedly underscore how clever she is and how she’s always one step ahead.

Writer/Director J. Blakeson (“The Disappearance of Alice Creed”) has made a stylish movie, with strong performances all around, and some very polished and sharp cinematography.

However, it’s ultimately about a manipulative woman who abuses the elderly for a living and gets away with it. If that’s the best message the filmmakers could come up with … what’s the point?  

There are arguably more successfully villain-centric movies that brim with social commentary, from “Natural Born Killers” to the more recent “Joker.” Both of those examples showed some kind of tragedy that – if they didn’t make us empathize with the main characters, they at least made us aware of the terrible systems that created them.

That doesn’t happen in “I Care a Lot.” It’s a movie that – for two hours – can be very upsetting and is without enough character development to justify the villain, or enough comeuppance to give the audience some kind of relief.

For such a well-made movie, it’s surprisingly painful to watch.  

PCL Rating: Low Taste It

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: Rotten

Tags: film review , I Care A Lot Netflix 2021 , movie review , netflix , netflix movie , Peter Dinklage , pop culture leftovers , Rosamund Pike

Categorised in: Movie Reviews

This post was written by Leftover Brian

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The team behind new horror movie with a near perfect Rotten Tomatoes score The Substance used The Fly as inspiration for Demi Moore's transformation

Exclusive: Demi Moore's transformation in The Substance is inspired by an iconic horror movie

When it comes to horror movie transformations, they don't get more grotesque than the metamorphosis seen in David Cronenberg's The Fly , which stars Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle, a scientist who slowly becomes a gruesome, insect-like creature after an experiment goes wrong. 

So iconic is Brundle's change that it inspired Demi Moore's transformation in upcoming horror movie The Substance. She plays actor Elisabeth Sparkle, who, after losing her job as the host of an exercise show, injects a mysterious substance that births a younger woman (Margaret Qualley) from a grisly wound in her back. 

"I was thinking of The Fly," French prosthetics veteran Pierre Olivier Persin tells Total Film in our new issue out on Thursday, August 15, which features Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on the cover, of Elisabeth Sparkle's gradual deterioration. "At first, he has hair on his back. He's losing one nail. It's a small decay. It's step by step. He's not suddenly gruesome. So it was trying to find the right balance. We didn't want one stage to be too much, so when we see where it's going, it's a surprise."

We also have an exclusive behind the scenes look at Moore's transformation, which you can see below.

For Moore, the prosthetics experience was a significant first. "I will say: reading it on paper is certainly a lot easier than what it actually is!" admits the star. "It was also a part of what was enticing and exciting. The team was incredibly talented. But it's time-consuming. It's intense. It really does require that you get very Zen, to be still. But even with whatever discomfort or challenge – for me, it's why you want to do something, because it's so far outside of my normal baseline existence. And it was such an important part – and a unique way – of telling this story." 

• Pre-order the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice issue of Total Film

The Substance is released on September 20. And you can read more about it and a whole lot else besides in the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves and digital newsstands on Thursday, August 15.

Check out the covers below:

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Pre-order the issue here to bag your copy or click here to subscribe to Total Film and never miss another exclusive. You’ll get every issue before it's in stores and you’ll get subscriber-exclusive covers. 

I'm an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English. 

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Mark Wahlberg & Halle Berry's New Netflix Spy Movie Continues Both Stars' Rough Rotten Tomatoes Records

New mandalorian movie footage teases a massive change for grogu, "i say this respectfully": saving private ryan's ending gets called out for 1 hollywood detail by ww2 historian.

Following her devious turn in the Netflix film I Care A Lot ,  London-born luminary Rosamund Pike recently earned a Golden Globe statuette for Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy or Musical. The victory marks Pike's first win after being nominated for Gone Girl and A Private War .

RELATED: Rosamund Pike's Best Movies, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

Following her sole Oscar nomination for  Gone Girl in 2014, Pike looks to add to her Academy Award cache this prolonged awards season. With a dark comedic bent, the mordant crime-thriller  I Care A Lot  joins a long line of films that revolve around a wily female swindler that often outsmarts those around her.

The Hustle (2019)

Billed as a gender-bending remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels , which in turn was a remake of Bedtime Story, The Hustle emphasizes the comedy inherent in the odd-couple scenario of female con artists.

Josephine (Anne Hathaway) is an upscale grifter who teams up with low-level hustler Penny (Rebel Wilson) to swindle unsuspecting men on The French Riveria. However, when they meet their latest mark, the players get a dose of their own medicine for a heft price of half-a-million dollars.

Focus (2015)

Slick conman Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith) enjoys a lavish life afforded by his supreme ability to bilk strangers of their fortune. When Nicky agrees to partner with Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie), a novice grifter and wannabe femme fatale, he gets far more than he bargained for.

RELATED: Margot Robbie's 5 Best (&5 Worst) Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the comedic heist-thriller takes a turn when Nicky develops romantic feelings for Jess despite his rule of never mixing business with pleasure.

Hustlers (2019)

Inspired by Jessica Pressler's New York Magazine  article "The Hustlers at Scores," Hustlers features an enterprising band of strippers who cunningly capitalize on their male customers' sexual desires.

In desperate need of fast cash in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), Destiny (Constance Wu), and others flip the script on their rich Wall Street clientele and swindle loads of money by drugging their drinks and charging large sums from their credit cards.

Kajillionaire (2020)

Written and directed by indie-darling Miranda July, Kajillionaire is a quirky comedic crime movie about a family of con artists who conspire to pull off a daring job upon failing to pay their rent money.

RELATED: Evan Rachel Wood's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Raised by criminal parents, Old Dolio Dyne (Evan Rachel Wood) hatches a scam to travel to New York and claims the airport lost her luggage in order to cash out on an insurance claim. When the plan backfires, Dolio teams with her new friend Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) to scrounge enough money to pay the rent.

The Last Seduction (1994)

In John Dahl's sultry The Last Seduction , Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) uses her wily wits and sexual power to convince her doctor husband Clay (Bill Pullman) to sell medical-grade cocaine for a large sum of money. After he agrees, she loots the cash and goes into hiding.

Bridget hides out in a small town and marks her next unsuspecting victim named Mike (Peter Berg), a dimwitted local she convinces to get rid of Clay for good.

Wild Things (1998)

Wild Things is a sexy, serpentine crime-mystery in which one twisted con is executed after another. At first blush, the protagonist appears to be Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon), a Florida schoolteacher accused of sexually abusing his teenage students Kelly (Denise Richards) and Suzie (Neve Campbell).

RELATED: Neve Campbell's Best Roles (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

But as the knotty plot unravels, the real hero turns out to be one of the two students who concoct an elaborate scheme to obtain $8.5 million awarded to Sam in a defamation lawsuit.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Directed by Frank Oz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels stars Steve Martin and Michael Caine as a pair of dueling conmen who try to outdo each other by swindling money from various women on the French Riviera.

When the two meet soap heiress Janet Colgate (Glenne Headly), they instantly compete to woo her and bilk her out of her vast fortune. However, Janet has far more up her sleeve than she lets on and ends up turning the tables on the two men and teaching them a lesson for the ages.

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis join Monty Python alums John Cleese and Michael Palin in A Fish called Wanda , a hilarious caper film in which the foursome attempt to pull off a brazen diamond heist.

RELATED: Jamie Lee Curtis' 10 Best Roles, Ranked (TV & Film)

While Kline won an Oscar for his performance as the vulgarian Otto, the real star of the story is his sister Wanda (Lee Curtis), a brilliant con-woman who pulls the strings to the elaborate crime plot in a way that benefits her and leaves the others out to dry.

The Grifters (1990)

After his latest scam leaves him in the hospital, small-time hustler Roy (John Cusack) is met by estranged mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston), who also works as a grifter for the mob. When Lily meets Roy's girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening), the trio works together to pull off a long con.

Despite the family affair, the three proceed to backstab and double-cross each other to obtain a large sum of stolen mob money. The Grifters earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Stephen Frears.

American Hustle (2013)

David O. Russell's American Hustle features an assorted collection of con artists who become involved with New Jersey mobsters, politicians, and the FBI. The dark crime comedy was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.

With $2 million up for grabs, seasoned conman Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is assisted by his seductive girlfriend Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) to help pull off an elaborate scheme by changing her identity to English socialite Lady Edith Greensly. Sydney outsmarts everyone involved en route to becoming a millionaire.

NEXT: 10 Films Where Amy Adams Should Have Won An Academy Award

• I Care A Lot (2021)

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It Ends with Us Review: A Gut-Wrenching Portrayal of Domestic Violence

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In It Ends with Us , a woman torn between two vastly different suitors tries to break the generational cycle of domestic abuse that also afflicted her mother. Adapted from Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel , It Ends with Us packs a powerful punch in a contrived but harrowing journey of self-realization . What begins as a thrilling romance transforms into a deceptively destructive relationship with iron tentacles. How can someone who claims to be head over heels in love turn physically violent? You're shattered by a likable protagonist's heartbreak despite the film's narrative flaws.

It Ends with Us is told along two timelines. In the present, Lilly Bloom ( Blake Lively, now Lady Deadpool ) travels home to Maine for the somber funeral of her father. Jenny, her distraught mother, hopes she's penned a thoughtful eulogy for the town's widely admired mayor. Lilly goes to her old room and looks out the window. She remembers being a teenager (played by Isabela Ferrer) and seeing a homeless classmate, Atlas, sneaking out of a dilapidated building behind her house. The kind and sweet Lilly resolves to help him after school.

Adult Lilly returns to Boston to pursue her dream of opening a flower shop. A chance encounter on a luxury building's rooftop results in instant chemistry. She's smitten by the tall, handsome, and fiery Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni, who also directs). He seems like a dream come true, but the successful neurosurgeon thrives on casual flings. A coy Lilly won't be easily bedded.

A Dark Romance Built on Unbelievable Random Events

It Ends With Us

Based on Colleen Hoover's 2016 novel, It Ends With Us is a drama-romance film directed by Justin Baldoni. The film follows a recent college graduate named Lily, who meets a man named Ryle and falls in love with him. However, a traumatic incident compounded with her former high-school sweetheart re-entering her life complicates her plans.

• Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni give complex, magnetic performances.
• It Ends With Us balances adult romance with a sobering lesson in abuse.
• Lazy writing relies on happenstance, and the film goes on a bit too long.

Months later, Lilly's sole employee (Jenny Slate) at her new store accidentally brings Ryle back into her life. Sparks reignite and a whirlwind of passion ensues. But Lilly gets another stunning surprise while eating with Ryle at a trendy restaurant. A grown Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) approaches to take their order. The love she felt for him as a teenager was never dormant. Ryle notices a change despite her best efforts, and reveals the hideous dark side of his personality.

Let's start with the film's biggest problem, which can't be ignored. Every consequential event is based on pure luck . Young Lilly just happens to be by her window to see Atlas. Ryle storms onto the roof at just the right time. Slate, who's great as the comic relief — drum roll please — is Ryle's younger sister. What are the odds of Lilly randomly hiring her in Boston, a city with millions of people? It also strains credulity for her to bump into Atlas after years apart.

There are two ways to look at these improbable meetings. Screenwriter Christy Hall ( Daddio , I Am Not Okay with This ) wants the audience to believe in serendipity. Fate drove Ryle and Atlas into Lilly's open arms. They were destined to battle for her heart. The skeptical response is cheap and lazy exposition. The film thrusts the characters together without establishing believable reasons . This reviewer is in the latter camp. That said, It Ends with Us gets past the boyfriend lottery with its visceral emotional impact.

The Controversy Behind It Ends with Us, Explained

It Ends with Us, the latest book-to-film adaptation, has drawn quite a bit of criticism. What's the reason for it?

Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni Are Excellent and Gorgeous

Lilly's struggle with abuse captivates on a primal level. Lively nails every facet of her complex character . Lilly's beauty, warmth, and dazzling artistry make her supremely engaging. It's understandable why hunky studs like Ryle and Atlas are champing at the bit to be with her. But Lilly's compassion and willingness for second chances leads her further down a tragic path. She's horrified at Ryle's behavior but doesn't want to believe that's really him.

It Ends with Us draws a striking parallel between Lilly and her mother. Both women are victims of cruel men who are adored by an ignorant public. They don't see monsters holding down and beating their terrified partners. Teenage Lilly could never understand why her mother didn't leave or report her father. She's disgusted and disappointed that Jenny covered for him, but sadly ends up in the same situation. It's not easy to run away or ask for help. Love becomes a chain that shackles.

Baldoni rightly appalls with a Jekyll and Hyde portrayal of Ryle. His double duty as director brilliantly lends itself to measured escalation . On the surface, Ryle is a fantasy come true for most women. His looks, wealth, intelligence, and even volatility, are charismatic and sexually intoxicating. Lilly wouldn't fall for a complete jerk. It also makes sense that Atlas would forever be enthralled by her. You never forget your first love. Hearts will melt at the unspoken longing between them.

It Ends With Us Cast & Character Guide

Rife with rich characters and a heartbreaking story, It Ends With Us stars some big Hollywood names, all capable of bringing such a story to life.

It Ends with a Sobering Lesson in Love & Domestic Abuse

It Ends with Us teaches a sobering lesson. Victims of domestic violence aren't foolish. Abusers don't easily relinquish their hold. Lilly has to muster the ability to escape. The scenes of her being hurt are absolutely gut-wrenching, but can't be glossed over . Light is the only disinfectant for the ugly and reprehensible.

It Ends with Us is a production of Columbia Pictures, Wayfarer Studios, and Saks Picture Company. It will be released theatrically on August 9th from Sony Pictures.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline is (800) 799-7233. Help is available 24/7 for anyone in need.

• Movie and TV Reviews

This Dark Comedy With 90% on Rotten Tomatoes Is as Unconventional as a Love Story Can Get

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The Big Picture

• BDSM is often portrayed negatively in media, but Dogs Don't Wear Pants offers a positive and respectful perspective on the community.
• The film explores grief and healing through the story of a heart surgeon finding solace in the world of BDSM after the loss of his wife.
• Through the characters of Juha and Mona, the movie delivers a message of embracing pain as a path to love, joy, and connection with others.

As far as kinks go, BDSM is a fairly well-known practice. And, yet, it still gets one heck of a bad rep. When it comes to media representations, leather and whips are usually associated with something creepy, whether that something is a gruesome crime in CSI or a borderline abusive relationship such as the one depicted in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise. It's hard to come up with a movie or show that paints the world of subs and doms in a legitimatelly positive light, or that uses it as a vehicle for a story not about sexual perversion, but about love, joy, and personal dramas. That alone is enough to make J.-P. Valkeapää 's Dogs Don't Wear Pants stand out. With delicate performances and a charming, albeit often heartbreaking story, this little-known 2019 black comedy holds the BDSM community in high esteem . The film focuses on the relationship between a dominatrix and one of her clients, who is still reeling from the death of his wife. It doesn't shy away from showing how pain can be destructive, but it also reminds us of its constructive aspects. The result is a charming movie that, while more than a little unconventional, is a pleasurable and heartwarming watch.

The critics' consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, where Dogs Don't Wear Pants holds the enviable score of 90% states, " Dogs Don't Wear Pants will be too intense for many viewers, but for those who can take the punishment, there's pleasure in this stark drama's pain." Audience-wise, its 70% rating is also not to be trifled with. Sure, it is understandable that some might find Valkeapää's picture off-putting, what with its detailed depictions of choking and beating for sexual pleasure. However, if one can get through that or even get on board with what the movie gives us, what waits on the other side is nothing short of pure beauty and joy — the beauty of living and the joy of finding something that truly makes you happy.

Dogs Don't Wear Pants (2019)

Dogs Don't Wear Pants follows Juha, a heart surgeon who becomes emotionally numb after his wife's tragic death. His encounter with a dominatrix named Mona leads him into the world of BDSM, where he begins to confront his grief and find a new path to healing. 

What Is 'Dogs Don't Wear Pants' About?

The story of Dogs Don't Wear Pants starts somewhere around a decade prior to the actual plot. While on a family holiday, Juha's ( Pekka Strang ) wife goes for a swim only to never come back. Taken over by grief as well as by the guilt of having been unable to save her, Juha spends the next years of his life reliving that fateful day , not so much dreaming of leaving the lake with his wife in his arms, but fantasizing about that last moment he saw her under the water — a moment in which he nearly drowned before being pulled out by a passer-by on a boat.

Years later, Juha goes through the motions of his life while his young daughter, Elli ( Ilona Huhta ), tries to get him to get over her mother by introducing him to her music teacher. Juha doesn't really care. As a matter of fact, he hardly cares about anything. Scenes of him masturbating with his face covered by his wife's clothes indicate that he is not only hung up on her, but searching for a way to return to that final second by her side, as horrifying as that might sound. While taking Elli to get her tongue pierced for her birthday, Juha finds a way of returning to that lake when he meets a dominatrix by the name of Mona ( Krista Kosonen ). Initially, it isn't clear what he wants from her, as he seems so out of place crawling on all fours like a dog in her chambers, but everything suddenly clicks when she chokes him, prompting his mind to take him back to the water.

This Dark Comedy With 97% on Rotten Tomatoes Delivers a Captivatingly Brilliant Satire

Equal parts playful and sharp, the comedy offers both humor and insight with a masterful touch.

Mona, of course, eventually realizes what Juha is truly after when he asks her to choke him. She realizes that what he wants is to be in close contact with death, and not to enjoy the full range of sensations that come with being alive, of which pain and pleasure are an integral part. And, so, she begins to avoid him, running away from him as he grows more and more obsessed with her . Juha starts to neglect his work, his relationship with his daughter, and even his well-being in his despair to be in Mona's hands, and, to her, nothing could be more disturbing.

'Dogs Don't Wear Pants' Paints a Positive Picture of the BDSM World

This tension between what each of Dogs Don't Wear Pants ' two main characters find in BDSM makes up for most of the film's plot, which can often be tense and unnerving. However, the kink itself is never painted as something destructive or abuse-prone. Mona has a soft spot for Juha because of the sadness she senses in him, that much is clear, but she never seeks to exploit these feelings for her own advantage. Instead, she sees him as a complete antithesis to what she herself sees in BDSM, and thus cannot give him what he truly wants. In turn, the proximity to death craved by Juha is portrayed not exactly as a wrong reason to seek BDSM, as the kink helps him navigate through his grief, but as something dangerous without the proper guidance. It is implied that Juha is already set on a destructive course long before finding Mona , and having her around actually helps him go through all the pain that he needs to go through without doing proper harm to himself.

Perhaps the most revealing scene of Dogs Don't Wear Pants is the movie's ending, in which Juha runs into Mona at a fetish party. Now free of his desire to die, he learns to enjoy BDSM for everything it has to offer, and not just the possibility of suffering . We, the viewers, are to understand that, in the middle of all his sorrow, Juha managed to truly connect with a universe that was previously unbeknownst to him. BDSM becomes, thus, part of a man's well-adjusted life. Furthermore, at the party, we get a glimpse of many other people enjoying themselves, and often even smiling at Juha to make him feel welcome. It is truly a kind way to look at leather life, seeing it as a community of like-minded individuals that might help each other through hard times, and not as a simple deviation that can only be sought out by those mostly deranged.

'Dogs Don't Wear Pants' Has a Lot to Say About Love and Grief

This final scene also tells us a lot about how the movie perceives grief and love. Valkeapää, who also acts as the film's screenwriter alongside Juhana Lumme , tells us that, before meeting Mona, Juha had a completely empty life apart from the corners that were filled with the pain of having lost his wife. What he needs, or so is the movie's thesis, is to embrace this pain, not seeing it as something that can engulf him, but as a path towards a light shining in the end. He needs to understand his pain as a means to something else, and that is where Mona comes in : though she is startled by him, she also helps him say goodbye to his wife and find pleasure on the other side of hurt. It is only after sailing through these troubled waters that Juha can love again, or even learn to connect to other human beings.

Again, we are taken back to that final scene. When Juha sees Mona at party, and vice-versa, we can interpret it in two different manners. One possible explanation is that they kept their relationship going strong and are simply attending the party together. Another possible interpretation, perhaps the most interesting, is that they are running into each other by chance after their last session together. In this scenario, Mona and Juha are finally meeting for the first time, not as a broken individual and the person he objectifies, but as two full people. With Juha's grief out of their way, they can finally know each other and maybe fall in love .

Dogs Don't Wear Pants is currently available to rent or buy on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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