Critic Reviews

One could also imagine a version of “Carolina Caroline” told as an “homage” to crime-spree movie tropes, with all the style and no substance. We’ve all seen that movie a hundred times. Rehmeier, though, cares about individuality, and he has a sense of humor. He doesn’t force chemistry, but he leaves lots of space for it.

Rehmeier has found a way to traverse different genres while maintaining an authentic, honest mix of comedy and drama. He’s unafraid to go for the big laugh, regardless of subject matter, yet knows when to hit the emotion hard.

In the end, writer-director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s Carolina Caroline — the odd title a play on the protagonist’s name and the state that magnetically draws her toward it — succeeds in blending the buoyancy of a road movie with the urgency of a crime caper, propelled by a pair of attractive bandits having a blast, at least initially.

Crime simply hasn’t felt this hot, or this exciting, in quite some time.

At the end of the day, Rehmeier's take on an outlaw romance wrapped in a road movie is entirely too enjoyable to give too much hate to. From the country music needle drops to the oozing on-screen chemistry, anyone who loves a good crime movie that doesn't take itself too seriously will need to get their butts into the theater for this one.

The story of a small-town girl falling for a career criminal and going on a cross-country crime spree with him is one we’ve certainly seen before, but Carolina Caroline provides its own spin on the subject that makes it well worth checking out.

Like an acoustic ballad — say, Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” that receives an auspicious needle drop — Carolina Caroline doesn’t seem all that remarkable until you hush and take in the lyrics. Suddenly, you’re swept up in big feelings.

Gallner and Weaving’s erotic chemistry, which begins at a simmer but quickly reaches a boil, helps smooth out the lumpier patches in Carolina Caroline that comprise the film’s middle section.

What works about Carolina Caroline is how it looks and feels.

It has all the excitement of a movie about crime, but if you took all the crime out of it, it would still work as a love story. Director Adam Rehmeier and screenwriter Tom Dean are not trying to create something mythic here, but something small-scale and affecting.