Director: J Blakeson
Starring: Rosamunde Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza González, Dianne Wiest
7/10
Though labeled a dark comedy, the humor is so low-key and intermittent that the film’s more of a psychological thriller and action film. Marla Grayson is a lawyer who’s built a lucrative business out of placing people into institutions, often on flimsy evidence of frailties, and establishing herself as the guardian. Naturally, she handles all their assets in a less than caring way.
Marla has quite a portfolio. She keeps photos of her captive clients on an office wall. Well, each of them has meant a great deal to her, as might the victims of a boastful but incautious serial killer. Her sociopathic professionalism might call to mind Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. The name “Marla” might enter our language just as “Gordon Gekko” and “Norman Bates” did. Her first name will suffice.
After placing one elderly woman in a home (Jennifer Peterson/Dianne Wiest), Marla goes through her safe deposit box and finds a sizable cache of diamonds – not something a senior would be storing. This puzzles her, but loot is loot. Soon thereafter a lawyer threatens her with deep trouble if she doesn’t release the elderly woman and Jennifer herself warns of hell coming down. After a shootout at the home, we learn what we’ve come to suspect. Jennifer isn’t at all what she seemed. She has ties to a ruthless Russian mafia gang led by Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage), who might or might not be her son.
And then it’s on, as they say. Principals are kidnapped, drugged, and damn near killed. Marla is so loathsome a person that a pitiless Russian gangster becomes the sentimental favorite. Perhaps a bit of dark comedy creeps in then.
A fine film marred slightly by what I’d say was an implausible resolution between Marla and Roman. In a way, justice prevails in the end.
© 2021 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to Susan Ganosellis.