Those who are aware of the rise in tutor abuse cases in the United States know that Netflix I care a lot is based on a true story about the thousands of elderly people who are deceived by people like Marla Grayson.
I care a lot, who debuted on Netflix on Friday, February 19, follows a swindler named Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), who makes a living by persuading a judge to appoint her as tutor for elders who live alone under the pretext that they cannot take care of themselves. Marla has the help of a doctor, who informs her of the wealthy elderly patients she can explore. The doctor then testifies in court about how these elderly people cannot take care of themselves, which convinces the judge to appoint Marla as his guardian.
After that, Marla transfers the elderly to a retirement home, takes out her cell phone, cuts off contact with family and the outside world and sells the house and property for her own profit. In the end, Marla makes billions from her business, but is shot to death by the son of an elder she deceived and who died before her family could see her for the last time.
So how real is it I care a lot and can this really happen to elderly people? Well, according to the film’s director, J Blakeson, it happens more often than people realize. “In Marla’s approach, a lot of that happens, unfortunately. It is true that there are many of these predatory tutors who pray for vulnerable and elderly people, and they kind of lock them up in these guardianships and basically end their lives, ”he told Collider in February 2021.“ The real life stories of that are really harrowing and horrible, so unfortunately, yes, it happens. “
Blakeson went on to explain the inspiration to Marla, who was a person who didn’t look like the usual swindler, but was still a criminal behind the surface. “One thing we talked about while we were making the film, I talked to Rosamund, you kind of have a sense of that, but you didn’t really make the final film, which is if you met Marla in real life, say at a party or something, you would just think, ‘Well, she is very attractive, very well dressed, well dressed. She seems to have a great and affectionate relationship with her girlfriend. She has great taste. Her office is beautiful and she is smart. She seems [like] a really great person. ‘And then you would ask her,’ What do you do with your life? ‘ “, He said. “She said, ‘Well, you know, I take care of the elderly.’ And you think, ‘This lady is great! She’s a saint! ‘”
He continued: “But, you know, part of this thing of people looking at the world as if they are good people who do good things, but in fact there are a lot of bad things under the hood that I think is very true in this world and it’s true for many different people in positions of authority who get away with it because people just trust them because, ‘Oh, they’re the guy we know!’ So there is this element that did not make it into the film, but I think it is very true. ”
Blakeson did not reveal whether there was a person who inspired Marla’s character, but viewers noticed the similarities between Marla and a guardian named April Parks, who was sentenced to serving 16 to 40 years in prison and paying more than $ 500,000 in restitution. in 2019. Parks was written in the 2017 New Yorker article, “How the Elderly Lose their Rights”, which was featured in a 2020 episode of Netflix Dirty money.
The article focuses on Rudy and Rennie North, a retired Nevada couple who married 57 years before Parks arrived at his home in 2013 and forced them to move to an assisted living center. Parks, who had gained control of hundreds of wards over the years, had filed an emergency petition to become the guardian of the North without his knowledge. As seen in I care a lot, the emergency petition allowed Parks to become the guardian of the North without them appearing in court. To convince the judge, Parks presented a letter from a doctor’s assistant who had an appointment with Rennie. The letter said that the couple could no longer take care of themselves.
After 10 minutes, Parks became the permanent guardian of the Americans, which allowed her to sell her belongings, change her insurance and force them to see new doctors who prescribed powerful tranquilizers and painkillers. The couple’s daughter, who did not know that her parents were being taken to a nursing home until she got home and saw that the house was empty, sought out journalists investigating abuses in the guardianship system.
Image: Seacia Pavao / Netflix.
In the end, Parks, her husband, lawyer and office manager were all indicted on charges that included perjury and theft in 2017. The case revealed that Parks had worked with medical facilities and lawyers to find future clients and told doctors what to write their notes to the court to ensure she received guardianship. She pleaded guilty and is currently serving her sentence. “She was not a guardian for me,” one of Parks’s former pupils told the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2017. “She didn’t protect me. With each passing day, I felt like I was in a tomb, buried alive. “
The newspaper reported that nine people spoke at Parks ‘hearing in 2017, including relatives of elderly people who died in Parks’ care. One victim, Larry Braslow, told the judge that a decades-old family address book had disappeared while his mother, Ruth, was in Parks’ care. Braslow also told the judge that his father’s chest, which contained military uniforms and other accessories, had also disappeared as soon as Parks took over the assets.
The court concluded that Parks was the guardian of 50 to 100 elderly or mentally disabled people before being arrested. She faced more than 200 criminal charges. The newspaper also reported that Parks, who was handcuffed while his victims were speaking in court, kept his head away from the victims during the hearing and kept his face like that.
I care a lot is available for streaming on Netflix.
