As the time-honoured meme states, you know it’s about to go down when Rosamund Pike is wearing a bob this sharp in an acting role. The actress’ latest film with Netflix, I Care A Lot, is currently making waves, not least of all because we’re seeing her return to terrifying manipulator form à la her Gone Girl days. While some are still processing the I Care A Lot‘s twists, turns and shocking ending, others are spooked by its real-life parallels to the plight of Britney Spears. The Free Britney movement has been bubbling for a while, but it’s reached a fever pitch with the release of the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears.
WATCH: I Care A Lot Trailer
The Framing documentary shines a light on the mistreatment of Spears by men around her, especially during vulnerable years in the young popstars life. What has this got to do with I Care A Lot?
Per Netflix, the plot of the thriller:
Poised with sharklike self-assurance, Marla Grayson (Academy Award nominee Rosamund Pike) is a professional, court-appointed guardian for dozens of elderly wards whose assets she seizes and cunningly bilks through dubious but legal means. It’s a well-oiled racket that Marla and her business-partner and lover Fran (Eiza González) use with brutal efficiency on their latest “cherry,” Jennifer Peterson (two-time Academy Award winner Dianne Wiest)—a wealthy retiree with no living heirs or family. But when their mark turns out to have an equally shady secret of her own and connections to a volatile gangster (Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage), Marla is forced to level up in a game only predators can play—one that’s neither fair, nor square.
Both films showcase the power that legal guardians and conservators like Spear’s father can hold over their wards, as well as speaking to the wider issues of lack of safety nets for the vulnerable in the legal system. Even one of the film’s stars, Eiza González, used the #FREEBRITNEY hashtag when promoting the film.
Below, more reactions from people who noticed the parallel.
