Director: Adam Rehmeier
Cast: Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Gries
Screenplay: Tom Dean
105 mins. Not Rated.

Carolina Caroline is about to hit theaters. This sleek and compelling crime thriller is also asking important questions, most notably: is it possible for two leads this steamy to actually melt a film strip? It’s absolutely a familiar story, but a well-executed familiar story is still a well-executed film nonetheless, and there’s a handful of fascinating turns to this tale.

When Caroline Daniels (Samara Weaving, Babylon) collides with con artist Oliver (Kyle Gallner, Jennifer’s Body), she is immediately swept away by his gentle eyes and his swaggering presence. They head out on the road together, and Oliver teaches Carolina about his life and his moneymaking trades, but as they get deeper into the con, they begin robbing banks, risking their identities, and making mistakes. When they cross a line that shouldn’t have been crossed, they quickly find themselves running for their lives.

As stated, this is a very familiar tale, but there are enough original pieces and distinct plot developments that I was never once bored with the proceedings. Clearly, screenwriter Tom Dean (Charlie Harper) was influenced by writer Jim Thompson, and there are a handful of sequences, particularly the opening money-swapping con, that feel lifted from Thompson’s work, and that’s a strength. Between the intimate nature of the characters and the smaller scale, Carolina Caroline feels more believable than most con artist narratives, and it’s further elevated by strong performances.

Weaving and Gallner are both excellent here, and they create realistic characters with tremendous chemistry. These are two sexy leads that just heat up the screen. It’s completely believable that Carolina is so swept off her feet by Oliver when the two of them are together, and they juggle the steamy scenes and the more heartfelt emotional beats rather nicely, aided by a recurring song from Jason Isbell that peppers their romance with tenderness.

What I appreciated most about Carolina Caroline is the attention to realistic and enthralling characters. So often, films about criminals and con artists feel this need to elevate the cool factor, but the lens on these characters only reflects how they see each other. Sure, at the beginning, Carolina sees Oliver as this suave sophisticated man who wanders through her life, but as the vulnerability peels back, she sees him as he is, flaws and all, and Oliver’s view of Carolina adjusts as she begins to like the new life that’s landed in front of her. The screenplay gives these two fascinating people the attention and knows when to subvert traditional expectations and when to lean into them. That viewpoint becomes introspective as they begin to get in too deep, asking themselves if they are simply good people pretending to be bad…or bad people pretending to be good.

Carolina Caroline is a classically told story, but it’s so well-crafted and finds a comfortable originality, so I didn’t mind when it played on the tropes and it genuinely surprised me several times throughout. Two great lead performances make this crime thriller a sexy and entertaining good time that hits hard when it needs to.

3½/5
-Kyle A. Goethe