'Carolina Caroline' - Bonnie & Clunky
The theology of the con man is one that many people can agree with. The American dream is a lie. Only the upper 1% live a life of luxury, while the rest of the population struggles to survive, or simply make a good living by ripping off other people. Society is built like a con game. Once you reach a certain point up the ladder, you can legally get away with conning people. So what’s wrong with shortchanging your fellow man who would probably do the same to you if they were in a higher position?
Although it’s a valid position, hurting your fellow person’s pocketbook to benefit your own survival is why we can’t move forward as a society. Tragically, our protagonists don’t realize this, nor do they want to, since working for a living is for suckers, according to them. Despite its complicated double thesis on the pillars in which society is built, there’s something that feels flat in Carolina Caroline that makes a movie about a deadly couple come across as another snoozy Bonnie & Clyde clone.
The movie is fairly clever with its opening. Caroline Daniels (Samara Weaving) is in her father’s gas station when Oliver (Kyle Gallner) finds a way to short-change her old man at the cash register without him even knowing it. When she confronts him, her mood shifts from angry to envious. What a clever way to take money from other people without them even realizing it, she thinks. Drawn by Oliver’s wits and physical attraction, Caroline tags along with him. If there’s one issue I have with these deadly-couples movies, it's how good-looking the protagonists are. Granted, the real-life Bonnie and Clyde were lookers themselves, but the good-looks-can-kill trope has been played to death. Why aren’t there ever movies about con couples who are averagely attractive instead of having movie star looks? At a certain point, it’s not hard to see someone as beautiful as Samara Weaving landing a nice occupation. Why she’d resort to hanging around a psychotic schmuck like Oliver makes sense in terms of the plot, but most women with a brain in their head would not tag along with somebody like this guy. Luckily for this script, Caolina isn’t meant to be very bright. Perhaps that’s the point of her character. She’s the average American who probably won’t thrive off of her looks alone, so she turns to criminality to find purpose.
Caroline is the typical girl with good looks but not much between the ears, while Oliver is the same case. The only difference is the gender dynamic that’s played in this movie. Oliver is the guy with the smarts (but not really), while Carolina is the dumb girl who tags along. Eventually, she learns the ropes and becomes as clever as Oliver. Carolina is played like a victim. Neglected from childhood, and not highly educated enough to succeed in the world, while Oliver is an enigma with a smug attitude.
Neither are characters I’d want to invest my time in. They’re more or less dull stereotypes of the broken American dream. When we dig into Caoline’s lineage, we’re paid off with a strong, if not over-the-top performance from Kyra Sedgwick, who’s playing what one would imagine a drooling, cartoonishly evil Trump supporter to be. It’s more cringy than a worthwhile dramatic payoff during a key moment of the film.
In case you didn’t get that this movie was a statement on the poor rebelling against the rich, the opening American flag font colors will impale that message into your skull. As the film reached its final act and its highest emotional points, I felt surprisingly empty. Perhaps it was because Oliver came off as someone I’d rather see get shot than win. Was that the director's goal? It doesn’t seem like it was, as we’re meant to be drawn into Oliver’s monologues about the hypocrisy of polite society.
Although Carolina Caroline is far from a bad movie, it comes across like a generic, lackluster indie thriller that doesn’t say as much as it thinks it does. The movie is almost good enough to recommend. Especially if you listen to the general consensus of a rotten tomatoes score over a single critic. And in this case, the score says I’m a jerk for giving this movie a mixed reaction. Where most might find a compelling toxic romance between two victims of capitalism, Carolina Caroline’s stale cardboard-cutout characters made this heist not worth taking. Perhaps you’ll have a better time than this cranky old critic, who sees too many movies a year to truly appreciate them.
You can catch my interview with Director Adam Rehmeier here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9SSLZr_Q10&t=9s
