A here's a review of a top-notch movie with an original theme my wife and saw and much enjoyed on Netflix. I Care A Lot is billed as "comedy, crime, thriller" on IMDb, and "black comedy" on Wikipedia. Although there are some funny elements in this movie, it's the crime/thriller part that lifts it pretty high in the stratosphere as a movie to see.
[Spoilers below]
The best part of the story is the battle between two arch villains it sets up and portrays in appealing, escalating fashion. Rosamund Pike plays Maria, who runs an ingenious scam in which she becomes the legal guardian of elderly people who or may not be mentally diminished, with Maria appropriates their assets for her own benefit and profit. (I have no idea if this scam actually occurs -- I hope not, it's evilly clever.) But Maria makes the mistake of doing this to Roman's (Peter Dinklage) mother Jennifer (Dianne Wiest) who has no real problems with her brain at all. What Maria doesn't know at first but comes to realize with a literal vengeance is Roman is a Russian mobster -- someone as driven and sharp as Maria, and even more ruthless, along with a ready ability to use deadly force.
The battle between them is a contest to see. And so is the twist upon twist in the end. Maria against all odds survives Roman's attempt to kill her, she then lands Roman in a hospital but accepts his offer that they start a swindling-the-old partnership, only to be killed in the very last scene by an aggrieved son who could never see his mother -- because Maria wouldn't allow it -- and now his beloved, unfairly locked away mother has died (I told you there would be spoilers).
I felt a little bad for Maria, though she got what she deserved. The ending -- that it's the overlooked peril that will get you -- has been a staple of everything ranging from crime to science fiction (Asimov used it in one his Foundation prequel novels in the 1980s), and it worked well in I Care A Lot. That in itself, and the whole movie before, is something you won't even feel a little bit bad about seeing, and indeed should immensely enjoy.
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