Following up on the recent ruminations concerning romantic comedy movies, here's an unwarranted essay entitled, That Was Stupid, and Other Thoughts on Carolina. Bewildered Heart watches a great number of Julia Stiles films. This isn't a particularly surprising statement, as we watch a great number of films starring a great variety of people. Be that as it may, if Julia Stiles ever reads this blog, and why shouldn't she, this blog read hers, then she shouldn't be disconcerted. Although, we would be pretty upset if she wasn't in some way flattered. After all, we have seen most of her films, and most recently there was the viewing pleasure of a 2003 effort named Carolina, where Stiles played the titular role, alongside Shirley MacLaine as that Shirley MacLaine character she now plays in everything. We have seen a lot of her films too. In this gentle and under-whelming romantic comedy the audience is treated to what we most look for in a movie, squandered potential.
In Carolina, there's a fairly messy back-story to contend with, unfortunately, and that confusion has not been aided by a lack of attention brought about by tedious story-telling. Despite that, here goes. Carolina and her half-sisters live with their eccentric, matriarchal grandmother. They have extended family gatherings, where comedic character actors turn out to eat, drink and say quirky things. Carolina has tired of this activity and to pay for her independence works on a dating game show, matching up lonely, angry people and then filming the hilarious despair of romantic failure. Her best friend and neighbour is a dream-boat writer, named Arthur, who authors sensationalist romance fiction under the pseudonym Daphne St. Claire. He is in love with Carolina and she is in love with him. However, thanks to a stern refusal of happiness, Carolina dates an English gentleman and watches this relationship fall apart, as all the others have, due to her non-existent character flaws. On a side note, there actually is a Mills & Boon writer named Daphne Clair, whose bibliography includes The Timber Baron's Virgin Bride. What a coincidence! Isn't that almost interesting?
In Carolina, there's a fairly messy back-story to contend with, unfortunately, and that confusion has not been aided by a lack of attention brought about by tedious story-telling. Despite that, here goes. Carolina and her half-sisters live with their eccentric, matriarchal grandmother. They have extended family gatherings, where comedic character actors turn out to eat, drink and say quirky things. Carolina has tired of this activity and to pay for her independence works on a dating game show, matching up lonely, angry people and then filming the hilarious despair of romantic failure. Her best friend and neighbour is a dream-boat writer, named Arthur, who authors sensationalist romance fiction under the pseudonym Daphne St. Claire. He is in love with Carolina and she is in love with him. However, thanks to a stern refusal of happiness, Carolina dates an English gentleman and watches this relationship fall apart, as all the others have, due to her non-existent character flaws. On a side note, there actually is a Mills & Boon writer named Daphne Clair, whose bibliography includes The Timber Baron's Virgin Bride. What a coincidence! Isn't that almost interesting?
After some quite unbelievable events this blog entry is determined not to ruin for you, dear reader, and a few deeply contrived scenarios which ruin themselves, the film ends as happily as a story can when it concerns some people you cannot possibly bring yourselves to care about. Carolina was written by Katherine Fugate, who a year later would further erode the credibility of Julia Stiles with The Prince and Me and manage to boost the box-office appeal of numerous actors who never had any credibility to begin with, with Valentine's Day. Fugate also created a show entitled Army Wives and how depressing is it to only find out about that show now? Oh, Army Wives, where have you been all our lives?
Sadly Fugate never follows through on the satirical element briefly alluded to early in the film. She begins with plenty to work with and a subject worthy and suitable of exploration, thanks to the supposedly knowledgeable arenas Arthur and Carolina work in. Love is tricky, and dating game shows and fantasy romance fiction are outside our understanding of the day-to-day. They're mindless, inoffensive trash and wish to be seen that way. They're escapist entertainment for people easily entertained. In the big existential crisis that is life such things cloud our judgment, unrealistically alter our perceptions and leave us facing a future where new TV shows don't hold a candle to cultural landmarks such as Jersey Shore. This stuff makes people worse, under a most pessimistic scrutiny. At best, they don't help.
Sadly Fugate never follows through on the satirical element briefly alluded to early in the film. She begins with plenty to work with and a subject worthy and suitable of exploration, thanks to the supposedly knowledgeable arenas Arthur and Carolina work in. Love is tricky, and dating game shows and fantasy romance fiction are outside our understanding of the day-to-day. They're mindless, inoffensive trash and wish to be seen that way. They're escapist entertainment for people easily entertained. In the big existential crisis that is life such things cloud our judgment, unrealistically alter our perceptions and leave us facing a future where new TV shows don't hold a candle to cultural landmarks such as Jersey Shore. This stuff makes people worse, under a most pessimistic scrutiny. At best, they don't help.
What helps, the film helpfully points out, is having the perfect man live next door to you and love you always and no matter how selfish and crazy you are. Carolina ends up not saying or doing anything, foolishly wasting any tangible notion of humanity and hoping the audience will be satisfied in seeing the lead character find love. Really, romantic comedy? That's all you have for us? Nothing. Films like this are a dime a dozen. A supposed female rites-of-passage flick that skips the rite-of-passage and settles for a solution that isn't what the film was set-up to be about, that in the end female empowerment is nothing compared to a sensitive man. If, during the opening credits, the viewer is able to announce that they have sat through Where The Heart Is, According to Greta and Post-Grad does that mean they don't have to watch anymore exact replicas of this meaningless garbage? Please note, Bewildered Heart has seen the majority of Alexis Bledel films because we love her. She certainly shouldn't ever read this.
Still, they are fascinating films in their simplicity. The emotionally heavy-weight issues of realising your true-self, loving your family no matter how inoffensively idiosyncratic they are and winning a competition, or giving birth, used as a ticking clock device, are all ideas rich for possibilities, and ruined when the writer doesn't properly deal with them. They all cope with the lovably weird family one, but that isn't a challenge. You're supposed to love your family, you spoiled dolt. No, in these films the epiphany never feels monumental enough to warrant cinematic treatment. Carolina has at its brittle heart a convoluted story with too many characters and not nearly enough heart. When Shirley criticizes a Daphne St. Claire book as having, 'Too much talking, not enough loving,' it's a valid point toward her own movie and the genre as a whole. Unless by loving she means sexing, because then her supporting characters are right to take issue with her one-track-mind. You're old! Eww. Stop it, Grandma.
Sam Wasson mentioned that rarely do we, as an audience, watch, with credulity, as a couple fall in love on screen. Yet, what is love and isn't everyone's interpretation of falling bound to be different? As James L. Brooks has finally asked, How do you know? even going so far as to make a film around the entire subject. Good on you, L. Brooks. We've seen a lot of your films. In the end, as the saying goes, when you know you know, and that's the critical stamp of approval few films receive. We just don't know.
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