Rosamund Pike has never been better (though to be fair, I refuse to watch Gone Girl), shining brightly as the manipulative Marla Grayson who, along with her team, manages to convince a judge that older people are unfit to care for themselves forcing them into assisted living facilities and becoming their legal guardian, striping them of their legal assets and preventing their family members from having any contact with them.
Basically, she's a cold-hearted bitch and just when she thinks she's stumbled into her biggest cash cow, she's wrong. Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) appears to be a little, simple old woman with slight memory issues but her secret is uncovered early on with a safe deposit box containing a little bag of diamond. Turns out that Jennifer isn't a real person but rather someone connected with the Russian mob and her son (Peter Dinklage) is out looking for her. So Marla's life gets complicated real quick and despite being warned, she lets it happen. Her life becomes incredibly difficult and she nearly dies, her house blows up and her lover, Fran (Elza Gonzales) is also nearly killed and one of their doctors is actually killed, so yeah, you should have heeded that warning.
But it gets crazy and she gets her revenge on the son, all so she can get tons of money because she hates being poor (who enjoys it?) but instead, after she finally has him completely dependent on him, they opt to go into business together, but she gets shot in the end anyway by a toss away character from the beginning, livid that she's keeping his mother away from him and now, she died alone. I wish I could say I was sorry for Marla, but I wasn't.
Now, despite the ridiculous legal system, I couldn't believe that Marla's cases kept getting heard by the same judge (Isiah Whitlock, Jr), who is clearly a strong ally of hers. Surely he would think the amount of people she's guardian to is a bit ridiculous, but whatever. And when they go to burn the car, where does the gasoline come from? And how does Alexi (Nicholas Logan), one of the minions, figure out where Jennifer was taken to? Still, despite these ponderings, it was still a solid, bizarre take on a thriller and was at least slightly unpredictable. The acting was solid, with Pike delivering a brilliant, chilling performance with not a hair out of place. It was so ridiculous, it was great. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-Alicia Witt and Chris Messina deliver brilliant supporting performances.
-Some of the moves and powers Marla has are completely unethical and should be absolutely illegal.
-While I didn't wish for Karen (Witt) to get killed, she certainly should have lost her medical license.
-Marla's trick of putting her tooth in milk and then having the dentist place it back in her mouth is something that actually works.
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