How much of yourself are you willing to lose for someone you love? Carolina Caroline is a film that forces you to ask yourself that question. It asks you to examine what you're willing to overlook and what you're willing to force yourself to experience just to be in the presence of someone you care for. In short, it's a great crime romance and it will not get the recognition it deserves.
Carolina Caroline is clearly based off of Bonnie & Clyde, the notorious American outlaws from the 1930's. It draws inspiration more so from the 1967 film rather than the true history of the people. Which is fine, all art is inspired by other art. There is nothing 100% original in the world and that is okay, it works. Carolina Caroline gives modern day audiences a chance to experience an infamous story in a way that will more closely resonate with them.
When we truly meet our main character, Carolina, we see her in a small-town general store. She's stocking shelves while a fly buzzes around the entirety of the scene. The fly could signify any number of things, the air being stale, Carolina rotting in her hometown. Literally there are a dozen different ways to read just a fly in the background. All signs point to Carolina being ready for change, she can't stay in Texas. If she does, she'll just get old and stale like the air the fly buzzes around in. That of course is where Oliver comes in.
Oliver in short, is a con artist. He travels the South to Midwest and cons working class people out of their hard-earned cash. Carolina finds the man absolutely fascinating. I however, saw him as a million and one walking red flags. Red flags you say? red flags I say. Now I love to gab so allow me to read the man to filth.
Oliver scams small-town working-class folks multiple times in the film. I could forgive him if he was conning the upper class. The man clearly has parental issues he has not worked on. No goal for his future other than to keep it pushing as is because it works for him. He obviously is a terrible influence because he got Carolina into conning as well. He taught her everything he knew and let her put herself into dangerous situations for cash. He could've just gotten a job. They still could have traveled and not risked the jail time. Truly he had no plan, there was no end goal other than do this forever. He was so goddamn cocky he believed they would never be caught. What's worse is if Carolina hadn't joined him, he might not have gotten caught. He likely could've continued doing those small cons forever, but instead he fell in love and decided to risk it all for her.
I won't lie; I had made some presumptions about Oliver as a character throughout the film. I had assumed he would push Carolina to escalate the cons. I assumed he would leave her behind the second there was any real risk. I assumed they would show him with anger issues and insinuate he abuses her. I was incorrect and I'm not ashamed to admit that. There is still evidence throughout the film that Oliver could be abusing Carolina but it's not 100% confirmed solely because those marks could also have been obtained through consensual sex.
Carolina is the one that pushes to escalate the cons. She wanted to prove she was as good as Oliver, she also thought it would please him. She goes out of her way for this man in so many ways. She lets him in on her dream, she comes up with a new dream just for them to share, she learns to beat him at his own game. She dared to dream of a future with him. She is absolutely smitten with him and he with her. Which is what changes her. She went from small town to big crimes facing repercussions she hadn't considered. It leaves her with a moral dilemma all her own, forcing her to make peace with the scars she will leave behind.
It's not a happy ending, but we always knew it wouldn't be.
-Lucy
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