Written and directed by J Blakeson, I Care a Lot is the story of a scam artist -played by Rosamund Pike- who acts as a legal guardian taking care of elderly people, putting them in residential homes to be looked after whilst she bends the rules to her benefit and takes control of their assets. Her plan, supported with the help of her partner and girlfriend-Eiza Gonzalez-, seems to work perfectly, until she takes care of a woman -played by Dianne Wiest- who seems to have a connection with a dangerous criminal -Peter Dinklage-.

There is no doubt that this film should be seen, if only for Pike’s performance. The British actress chews the scenery left, right and centre, with a wonderfully evil character who manages to be both captivating and deliciously manipulative. Her performance makes you want to spend time in her company, checking how she is going to keep her skill and charm work in her favour to successfully maintain her scam afloat. Much could be said about her work -she has just won a Golden Globe for it-, and all of it would be fair, as Pike gives it all to craft a character who is not asking to be liked; she is not afraid of being unlikable -despite the fact that every moment she is on screen is a joy-. She succeeds with her performance in a way that is praiseworthy and that -although it might be easy to establish a connection to her role in Gone Girl- cements her talent to play characters that are manipulative, powerful and, above all, memorable.

In I Care a Lot, Pike is accompanied -besides the aforementioned Eiza Gonzalez who does well, despite not having the most developed character in the film- by the great Dianne Wiest and Peter Dinklage. The former manages to play second fiddle to Pike’s role and still she is able to have her own moments to shine; being either lost and vulnerable or meaner and more in control, Wiest shows how a reliably talented actress she is. Hovewer, it is a shame that the script does not give too much to Peter Dinklage as his role is relegated to the margins of the plot. Nevertheless, he makes the most of his scenes, having a couple of good moments -something especially noticeable as he is mostly sharing the screen with Pike- in which he manages to easily balance between charm and menace.

Sadly, not everything about I Care a Lot is as good as its central performances. Perhaps this might be a personal, small niggle, but, I felt as if the film might have improved had it been around 15-20 minutes shorter (it clocks in at around 2 hours). The initial energy and momentum the film starts with are progressively lost until a slower third act that -albeit it is a cohesive and satisfactory one- feels slightly predictable. Generally, the film is far to be considered as a predictable one, but as the plot moves forward at a slower pace near the end, it allows room to think and calculate, thus predicting what the next move of our machiavellian protagonist is going to be -which is a shame for a scam artist-.

All in all, I Care a Lot is an enjoyable film that is not afraid of being fully populated by unlikable characters and never feels the urge to turn them into caricatures. Thanks to Pike’s performance it will -hopefully- gain the audience it deserves, as it is a perfect and timely manifesto of the modern mentality and ideals of success and capitalism and their impact on society.