I Care a Lot | 2020 | R | – 4.7.8

Why is “I Care a Lot” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout and some violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene and several kissing scenes between two women, a shooting causing death with bloody wounds shown, a near drowning, a house explosion, a reported murder (we do not see the incident), many arguments with threats of death or physical violence, several elderly people being swindled out of their possessions and institutionalized, and over 30 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A crooked court appointed guardian (Rosamund Pike) plans to financially exploit her elderly charge (Dianne Wiest), but is thwarted when she discovers the older woman’s protective friends are members of the mafia. Also with Eiza Gonzalez, Peter Dinklage, Chris Messina, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Macon Blair and Nicholas Logan. Directed by J Blakeson. [Running Time: 1:58]

I Care a Lot SEX/NUDITY 4

 – Two women embrace in the dark while standing against a wall and one woman wraps a leg around the other woman as they kiss several times; they enter a bedroom and the scene ends (sex is implied). Two women embrace for a few seconds in three scenes and kiss several times in one of the scenes; we see an engagement ring on the finger of one of the women.
► A woman pulls an unconscious man out of a car and removes his clothing, leaving him on the roadway (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details); we first see his bare chest, arms and shoulders, and then his bare buttocks, and one thigh that is crossed over his genitals. A woman in a convenience store pulls off a wet shirt, revealing a wet bra (we see her bare shoulders, arms, cleavage and the outline of her nipples). A woman wears a bra top and yoga pants in a gym (her bare shoulders, arms, cleavage, abdomen and the outline of her thighs are shown). A dozen elderly women exercise in a pool and we see cleavage.

I Care a Lot VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – An angry, cursing man runs toward a woman in a parking lot and shoots her in the chest, leaving a large bloody spot on her blouse as the woman collapses; another woman bends down and cries over her as the victim gasps, and sirens sound off-screen (blood turns the blouse red and a close-up shows blood pooling on the ground).
► A woman is shot in the thigh with a tranquilizer dart, falls unconscious, is loaded into a car trunk and the scene cuts to the woman tied with zip ties into a chair by a river; a man pulls a plastic bag over her head tightly as she awakens and gasps, another man tears the bag and threatens to kill her while telling her that he cut the fingers off the hand of a woman he knew and killed her, leaving her buried under a restaurant; the man threatens to kill her and her mother, and punches her in the face (we see no injuries). Two men chloroform a woman and use a hypodermic needle and a narrow hose to feed a clear liquid into the woman’s nose and stomach; they put her unconscious behind the wheel of a running car, put a bottle of clear alcoholic beverage in her lap, start the car, send it speeding through bushes, trees, and over a cliff into a lake, and she awakens, struggles with her seat belt, kicks the back glass out of the vehicle after several attempts, swims to the surface, gasps several times, coughing up water and dripping wet, and she walks away on the road; she pulls a bloody tooth from her mouth, puts it in a bottle of milk from a corner store, and takes it to a dentist, where we see her mouth propped open and the scene ends. Two men break into an apartment where they beat a woman repeatedly with fists and kicks in the dark (we see her later with a cut over the eye and a bruise on the cheek); she lies in a kitchen where the gas stove top is turned on but not lit and another woman pulls her into another room, she revives and they leave together, as flames explode loudly out of a window.
► A doctor finds a man in her waiting room after closing and the scene cuts to a TV newscast stating that the woman was found dead in her office, possibly dying by suicide. Three men visit a nursing home and one of the men tases another man that falls off-screen; the first three men break down the door of a resident’s room, a guard shoots one of the three men in the thigh and we see blood spurt, another bullet hits a small oxygen tank that careens off a wall and hits another of the three men in the chest knocking him down, the third man takes an elderly woman to the front door and holds a pistol on three staff members who let them through, and another woman hits the pistol holder in the stomach with a ball bat while an orderly holds him for the police and two staff members hold the elderly woman.
► An elderly woman in a large house answers her door to a woman who shows her a court order directing that the elderly woman be placed into a nursing facility for dementia; after a short argument, the elderly woman sees two deputies and a sheriff waiting for her and they force her into a car where she is not allowed to have a purse, and at the facility her cell phone is taken away.
► Two women follow a man in a car all night and stop at an office hi-rise where one of the women disguises herself with a short wig, enters the parking garage and tases a man who falls off-screen; as a man enters the back of the vehicle, the woman tases another man and jabs a hypodermic needle into the first man’s thigh, putting him to sleep, she drives away and at night, gives the man a second injection, pulls the unconscious man from the car and removes his clothing, leaving him on the roadway (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details); we later see the man in the back of an ambulance on oxygen and in a hospital room where he is on a ventilator, and when he awakens a woman and a nurse wheel him in a wheelchair to a visiting area, where the woman and the man threaten to kill each other, but agree to become partners in exploiting elderly people.
► A man threatens a guard in a nursing home and throws a fire extinguisher at the unbreakable glass doors, making a loud crash; he wrestles with the guard, a second man grabs him and the scene cuts to a court room where he yells at a woman and a judge; the judge finds in favor of the woman and the man later yells at the woman, “I hope you get raped, I hope you get murdered, I hope you get killed,” he spits in her face (we see a little spittle) and she threatens to rip off his genitals as she leaves. An elderly woman chokes a younger woman in a headlock until an orderly pulls her off and later we see red marks on the victim’s neck; the victim has the elderly woman put into a small cell in a psychiatric facility, where she is not allowed to have any bedding or anything else in the room except a twin bed. A woman argues with an elderly woman in a nursing home and says, “I own you,” and “I could kill you”; she then tells a man to decrease the woman’s arthritis and pain meds, give her stimulants at night and sedatives during the day, increase her exercise to maximum, keep her locked in her room for all but 30 minutes a day, and to take away all solid food.
► An angry, shouting man throws a smoothie into an unbreakable glass window, creating a loud thud. A man throws a heavy knickknack into a Plexiglas covered picture on a wall with a crashing sound, but nothing breaks. A man points a gun at another man and orders him to find a woman, and the second man drives away in a panic. A violent martial arts video plays on a nursing home TV and we see and hear rifle shots, kicks and punches.
► A man in court yells at a woman and argues with the judge, but the judge finds in favor of the woman. A narrator says that a woman exploits the elderly by having a corrupt doctor and nursing home manager commit them against their will, and she takes out restraining orders on any relatives, and seizes the elderly person’s assets; she sells all their possessions, including homes, and steals everything from their safety deposit boxes. Two men argue loudly in a few scenes. A man and a woman argue briefly. Two women argue in a few scenes. Two women each say twice that they will be shot in the head (this does not happen). A woman tells another woman that an elderly woman is dead. A man shouts to a woman that his mother died in the woman’s care. A woman says a baby died of polio at age three months and an adult stole her identity. A man threatens to make a woman increasingly uncomfortable until she dies, but right now she has a nice face and unbroken bones; she says she doesn’t care.
► A woman removes bloody bits of debris from another woman’s hair and hugs her.

I Care a Lot LANGUAGE 8

 – About 34 F-words and its derivatives, 5 scatological terms, 9 anatomical terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (stupid, idiot, liar, old people, old lady, crazy, immoral, sadistic, shark, hustle, little crock of [anatomical term deleted], she-doctor, cash cows, sociopaths), exclamations (ow, whoa), 1 religious profanity (GD), 9 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Jesus Christ, Oh God, Thank God, Good Lord). | profanity glossary |

I Care a Lot SUBSTANCE USE

 – We see shelves of prescription bottles that cover an entire wall in a nursing home, nurses administer medications to the residents and we see one woman swallow a pill with water, a woman tells a man to decrease an elderly woman’s arthritis and pain meds and to give her stimulants at night and sedatives during the day, an elderly woman complains that she is given too many drugs and uses a slurred voice, a man says that he will hire “mules” (drug smugglers), and a police officer tells a woman that a man is a major drug lord. Two women sip from short glasses of an amber liquid in two scenes, and two women drink from champagne glasses in two scenes. A woman vapes from an e-cigarette in several indoor and outdoor scenes creating huge clouds of white smoke.

I Care a Lot DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Court appointed guardians, competency hearings, aging, bullying, elder abuse, controlling-type behavior, misanthropy, elderly victims, violence, assault, torture, gaslighting, paranoia, murder, fear, survival, protecting family members, justice.

I Care a Lot MESSAGE

 – Elder abuse and exploitation are serious problems in America that need to be addressed.