Carolina Caroline brings Bonnie & Clyde to Americana, set in rural and roadside towns. You get a beautiful criminal couple, broken dreams, stolen cash, and a lot of country music. The latter is a big problem for me. I truly can’t stand country music.
You’ve seen this story before. Samara Weaving plays Caroline, a restless young woman stuck in a dusty small town, caring for her father and dreaming of someday going to North Carolina. She meets Oliver (Kyle Gallner), a smooth-talking con man who tricks a cashier into giving back more change than he should have. Charismatic and persuasive, he sweeps her into his schemes, and soon Caroline is asking how to con herself, bumping into people on trains, and stealing their wallets. It doesn’t take long before they become wanted criminals, and Caroline finds herself asking if they are “good people pretending to be bad, or bad people pretending to be good.” (She really does say that out loud.)
The film leans heavily on the chemistry of its two leads and on your tolerance for country songs. The first half is especially slow, filled with one tune after another as Caroline and Oliver dance, flirt, and run through “getting good at shooting” montages. Caroline’s guilt arc plays against Oliver’s insistence that they’re only hurting those who deserve it. The tone stays light, but the film is neither funny, fun, nor electrifying. Beyond the looks and charm of its stars, there isn’t much else to hold on to.
I’ve always struggled with retellings of Bonnie & Clyde, never quite connecting when they ask us to sympathize and even cheer for criminals on the run. This one tries to soften the edges with tragic backstories and flashes of nobility, but for me, it comes off as hollow. It isn’t the big corporations that pay the price when bank money is stolen. Throughout the film, I kept thinking about how many times I’ve seen this dynamic and how little new this version brings to the table. The only version of this tale that has ever worked for me remains Frank Wildhorn’s Broadway musical Bonnie and Clyde. At least that one had great songs.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future.
Still courtesy of TIFF.