The plot of I Care A Lot is about a legal guardian who dupes the courts into letting her become a caretaker for older people. Marla Grayson (played by Rosamund Pike), the Lucifer disguised, convinces the courts that elderly individuals cannot take care of themselves and therefore need Marla as their guardian. Being their legal guardian gives her complete control over their lives and decisions. Marla then cuts off all contact between her designated patient and their loved ones. She puts individuals under her care in prison-like nursing homes and begins selling all of their assets. Marla comes across Roman Lunyov (played by Peter Dinklage), who is a very bad man himself. Together, they team up to swindle people as a team and are very successful at it.
Is This Actually Legal?
While the film is not based on one particular person, the director J Blakeson actually came upon the idea of the story from reading multiple news articles about this very same thing happening in real life. Multiple guardians have used the legal loophole to swindle innocent, unexpecting elderly people out of their assets and place them in homes. While some of the swindlers have faced the legal consequences of their actions, the wards of the guardians are stuck in their guardianship for life, some committed to nursing homes until their deaths.
An estimated 1.3 million adults are currently under the care of court-appointed legal guardians, with $50 billion worth of assets being controlled.
The Pursuit of the American [Capitalism] Dream
Upon reflecting on the disturbing articles that Blakeson came across, he explored what it meant to chase the American Dream. He considered what would make a person exploit human suffering for profit. Some critics claim it is just typical American capitalism that can turn a regular law-abiding person into a greed-driven manipulator out to gain quick and easy wealth, no matter the cost.
*Photo credit: Collider