Brief Story Line
Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike - The Informer, Jack Reacher etc) was a con artist whose scheme was to convince the government of elderly persons' inability to take care of themselves and thus were put under her care as legal guardian and placed in a facility. With her partner Fran (Eiza González - Bloodshot, Baby Driver etc), they would later took over these elders' assets and sold them for their own benefit.
When a new "target" of an old woman named Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest - Parenthood, Life in Pieces TV series etc) was informed to Marla, she decided to do her usual scheme. However, what seemed to be an easy prey would later proved to be completely the opposite.
Things became further complicated when a mysterious person (Peter Dinklage - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Underdog etc) took a special interest in Jennifer. He even enlisted the help from a lawyer named Dean Ericson (Chris Messina - Birds of Prey, Live by Night etc) to help Jennifer.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this enjoyable dark comedy thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I mentioned above, based on the very brief synopsis, at first I thought that this movie would be intriguing but probably mostly drama. So when I actually watched it, I was pleasantly surprised that it involved con scheme which was always interesting since they often used ingenious methods. And in here, we got to see a unique and frankly brilliant way to "cheat" the system.
What interest me was not only of how the scheme done but also another party who came into the picture. Usually movies involving cons would pit the con artist with the law. However this time they were actually at the side of the law and their opponents were someone a lot more dangerous. I was hooked by the battle of wits between them. Unfortunately though, I felt this entertaining battle was a bit too short, especially when we came to the final third. Luckily, the ending was totally unpredictable with multiple surprises which were totally great and satisfying for me.
I read that Rosamund Pike got Golden Globe nomination for her performance in here, which I thought was quite justified. Her facial expressions were exceptional during the court scene (where she could look totally innocent), interviews or when facing dangers. She was totally convincing as this intelligent con artist. The rest of the cast were good as well. I particularly liked Dianne Wiest who was amazing, as well as Chris Messina as this really sleazy lawyer. Peter Dinklage was OK too, but Eiza González sadly seemed a bit out of place personally for me.
For a movie of this genre, it was understandble to have a long duration (total 118 minutes including closing credits without any mid or post end credit scenes). I did not feel it to be too long and thought it was just nice. One thing that was a bit weird for me was normally I would always root for the con artist, but somehow I was not that symphatetic with the protagonist (I think the better term would be anti-hero) here. Even though the con was smart, but perhaps it was because the victims were helpless old people who did not deserve to be conned, unlike in other con movies where we immediately root for the con artist.
Overall to me this was an interesting movie with intelligent cons, some battle of wits and wonderful performance from the lead cast. I did not see any reference of adaptation from anything so it was quite original. Great job by the writer/director J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed, The 5th Wave etc). So if you are looking for movie with those qualities, then you can give this a try.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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