CAROLINA CAROLINE Review

Sometimes social media picks your next movie watch for you.

I was scrolling through Instagram last night when I came across Samara Weaving's page. She was celebrating the fact that her newest film, Carolina Caroline, was ranked #2 on Netflix, and she was imploring fans to check it out and bump it up to #1.

I don't know that it worked a charm; when I found Carolina Caroline today, it was at #4. But hey, still top five! Can't beat that.

Carolina Caroline is the story of a young woman named Caroline who works at a gas station. One day she sees a man named Oliver come into the store. He runs a quick cash exchange scam on Caroline's coworker, and when she chases Oliver down to confront him, she finds herself taken with his charm.

Caroline goes home at that point and we see her close and playful dynamic with her father, but after having spent time with Oliver, she wants to see more of the world. So she packs her bags, tells her dad goodbye, and heads out on the road.

Early in their adventure, Oliver takes her under his wing and starts teaching her the ways of the conman. She quickly learns how to pull the wool over the eyes of her marks and steal wallets. And as she grows under his tutelage, their relationship turns steamy.

But Caroline has an ulterior motive for going on the road and leaving Texas: she wants to find the mother that abandoned her as a baby and to see what will come between them...

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving are two of the most underappreciated actors working today, and they do their typical stand-out work here. Gallner seems likely to continue putting forth brilliant efforts in independent cinema, but Weaving is onto bigger things with an MCU debut coming in the future. Here, though, their chemistry is solid, and they play off of each other extremely well.

The duo also flows through the moods of the movie with ease, as they go from euphoric and hopeful to tragic and devastated. It's not every actor that can shift gears as well as they do in this one, so I want to credit them for that. I always look forward to seeing Gallner or Weaving in anything, and Carolina Caroline just furthers that feeling.

+ Speaking of the moods of the movie, Carolina Caroline goes in a direction I really did not expect when I started it. I had an idea that this flick would be more light comedy and action and less tragedy and drama. I was expecting a reveal at the end of which character was actually playing which. But it really took me for a spin I did not see coming, and I dig any movie able to do that. Much like Oliver would want from a mark, I was looking right, and this came at me from my left.

I did not expect Carolina Caroline to tug at my heartstrings the way that it ultimately does. There are potent moments late in the movie.

- I anticipated Kyra Sedgwick to have a bigger role in this than she does. She ultimately has just one scene, and then she is out of the picture for good. Credit to the film for getting Sedgwick for even the minor role here, but you could have cast anyone as the character and went on with your movie.

To be fair, her moment is a strong one as it kickstarts the mood shift that the film goes through. So they make the most of the limited screen time she is offered. But imagine what they could have done if she had a bigger role.

- The movie picks up dramatically in the third act when we really get into the tonal shift and the meat of it all, but for the first two acts, Carolina Caroline is kind of unfocused and plodding. Establishing the relationship between Gallner and Weaving is fun, and letting them explore their roles pays off, but I couldn't help but be just a bit bored while nothing seemed to be moving a story forward.

The early acts focus heavily on Caroline learning the conman trade from Oliver, and that ultimately doesn't go far and the pair switch to bank robbing from confidence games. The relationship with Caroline and her dad is established, and then abandoned. It felt like Carolina Caroline was killing time until the third act.

OVERALL

Carolina Caroline is a deceptively powerful movie that has a strong emotional core that is held together by strong performances from Weaving and Gallner. It's high time that the both of them become household names. I expected a much more generic picture, but this effort ends up being well worth your time and attention.

🍿 SCORE = 71/100