“I Care A Lot” is a 2021 thriller film written and directed by J Blakeson. It follows Rosamund Pike as Maria Grayson as a legal guardian who takes advantage of old women to make money. She gets in trouble when tries to take advantage of the mother of a human trafficking gangster named Roman Lunyov played by Peter Dinklage.

This film opens with narration from our main character as she is starting to succeed in this world. You must be unfair.  I understood right away this film was about capitalism. Although, at first I was confused. Our main character does research on elderly people who are seemingly helpless even though they may be fine and takes them to court to get guardianship. She explains to the judge why they need her as a guardian and when she becomes their guardian she puts them in a nursing home and steals  their assets. I have seen characters who are immoral, such as Walter White from “Breaking Bad” or Lou from the film “Nightcrawler.” However, they typically have some redeeming qualities. White was trying to “provide for his family” and Lou is presented as a hard worker. These traits made us root for these characters despite their terrible actions. In this film, our character is doing this for her own benefit and it makes her highly unlikeable.

Once I found out she got involved with a gangster I wanted to see her defeat. Except the gangster is revealed as a human trafficker. There was nothing to root for in this film and I  realized that’s the point. This movie is about capitalism. In America, there cannot be wealth without the suffering of others. The only reason we have social class is so someone at the bottom works for close to nothing so the people at the top can survive.  

This is blatantly shown as Grayson uses the law to take advantage of helpless people. The fact that her adversary is just as bad and, at the end of the film, wants to team up with her shows that in the system of capitalism someone will always be on top. At the end of the film, Grayson, now an extremely wealthy CEO, is on the news telling people how hard work is the key to success. Her actions in this film show us that is not true and is a critique of the American dream itself.

We are told we can do anything we want with hard work. While I believe that is true to an extent,  billionaires and corporate CEO’s)are constantly seen taking advantage of people.  According to CNN, the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, does not pay his employees’ livable wages.  According to The Guardian, Apple products are made in Chinese sweatshops that have suicide nets outside of their windows.  Fast-food employees in America are considered essential workers yet get paid minimum wage and face disrespect daily. It cost 25 billion to end hunger in America and 2.3 trillion was spent by the U.S. government to save poorly managed businesses during the pandemic. The premise of this movie is that The American Dream is reserved for those who unfairly work their way up.

This dark comedy had good performances from its two leads, Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage. It was entertaining and wasn’t overly drawn out.  I recommend people watch this movie.

(I watched this on Netflix)