There’s a slight breeze that blows back Caroline’s (Samara Weaving) hair as she rides back home with Oliver (Kyle Gallner) on their first night together in “Carolina Caroline” that let’s you know she’s in for the long haul with this guy that she’s just met, the feeling of cool that she feels in his company pervading the whole of Adam Carter Rehmeier’s deliriously entertaining third feature. (The moment I was down personally was even before this when Oliver first revs up his Chevrolet SS and Steve Earle’s “Someday” started blaring over the speakers, the hard-living country star with the soulful reedy voice about as ideal a troubadour for this particular lovers on the lam tale as there could be.) There shouldn’t be too many surprises in store for Caroline with Oliver when she meets him watching him con her boss at a local filling station with an increasingly complicated series of requests about how he should receive change for buying a 69-cent bag of nuts with a $10 bill, but she is enchanted by the prospect more than scared with the idea of not knowing where the road is headed when she takes off with him, noting that her biggest dream is to travel and that’s all he does, unable to stay in one place for long when it turns out he robs banks.
It’s inevitable that “Carolina Caroline” will draw comparisons to “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Badlands” based on its plot alone, but with knockout turns from Weaving and Gallner, energetic direction from Rehmeier and a strong script from Tom Dean, it deserves to be in that conversation for other reasons. All fun and games at first when Oliver convinces Caroline that the only victims of the kinds of crimes he perpetrates are those who can afford the losses – insurance companies and shareholders rather than the employees who toil for an hourly wage – the film channels the exhilaration of the young woman who couldn’t have expected much of herself seem to find a calling and a higher ceiling in her criminal exploits, starting out small with the dollar trick she learns from Oliver and graduating to waving around a gun at small-town Savings and Loans where the lone security guard can’t be expected to put up much of a fight. The money collected is secondary to the thrill of pulling off the job itself – when Caroline leaves the cash at an early stop, the two simply laugh it off as they drive away when they know tomorrow will bring another opportunity. But while skill puts Caroline and Oliver out of reach of the authorities, conscience starts to catch up with Caroline who has to worry about losing control over her emotions after finding herself inadvertently pointing her gun in the direction of a kid during a job, unlikely to fire the weapon, but doing at least some damage in leaving a scarring memory. She has similar issues herself when her mother left her at a young age age and her desire to hit the road is at least in some part fueled by wanting to find her in South Carolina.
Weaving is equally convincing as a wounded daughter held hostage by her memories as a total badass performing stickups and it totally makes sense how hard Caroline falls for Oliver, played with a laid-back charm by Gallner that there is simply no defense against. Their chemistry is just a part, however, of an even greater alchemy Rehmeier conjures in a country western world where the blue and red lights of cop cars and a honkytonk dance floor can commingle and the danger is part of the attraction. The “Dinner in America” director who in just three films has created something of a signature in shifting between different tones, shows plenty of new muscles here with what can at times be a ravishing romance, a clever con comedy or a taut heist movie from scene to scene and as it constantly diverts your attention, you only realize after how it’s run away with your heart.
“Carolina Caroline” will screen again at the Toronto Film Festival at the Scotiabank on September 6th at 6:30 pm, September 13th at 7 pm and September 14th at 6:30 pm.