CAROLINA
US, 2003, 96 minutes, Colour.
Julia Styles, Shirley Mac Laine, Alessandro Nivola, Randy Quaid, Edward Atterton, Azura Skye, Mika Booram, Jennifer Coolidge, Alan Thicke.
Directed by Marleen Gorris.
Carolina was written by Katherine Fugate, a memoir of her growing up with her grandmother and sisters. They were an eccentric family. This is captured in the performances as well as the dialogue with Shirley Mac Laine doing another of her very eccentric roles as the offbeat Grandma Millie. The contrast is with Julia Styles as her granddaughter, wanting to be respectable and rather repressed. The other granddaughters are played by Azura Skye and Mika Booram. She also has an eccentric sister who is a madam and often in prison, played by Jennifer Coolidge.
Alessandro Nivola has a sympathetic role as a novelist who is in love with Carolina though she does not see it. The contrast is with British Edward Atterton as her suitor.
The film is enjoyable, an opportunity for Shirley Mac Laine to strut her stuff, a chance of an offbeat romance, as well as asking the audience to what a normal American family could be like.
The film is a surprise choice for Dutch director Marleen Gorris who usually writes her own screenplays. She made such films as A Question of Silence in her native Holland and won an Oscar for best foreign language film of 1995 with Antonia’s Line. She went on to direct the British version of Mrs Dalloway? with Vanessa Redgrave, written by Eileen Atkins, as well as The Luzhin Defence with John Turturro and Emily Watson.
1.An entertaining film? Eccentric films about eccentrics? A memoir by the writer? A woman’s perspective on women? The work of the director? Her Dutch background, working in Hollywood?
2.The Los Angeles settings, the eccentric home, the ordinary apartments, the television station and its eccentricity, restaurants etc? The musical score and songs?
3.The strength of the cast? Shirley Mac Laine and the contrast with Julia Styles?
4.The portrait of the children, the two young sisters, out with their grandmother, her various devices to get bargains, calling for the toilet paper…? Their relationship with their grandmother? Devotion to her, her love for them? Their alcoholic father turning up every so often? Bringing the third sister, the young baby? The clash with the knives? Their agreeing to unite and be with their grandmother? The grandmother filling in the story, their father and mother, their mother’s parents and wanting the abortion, Grandma going in with the rifle and forcing the mother out? Her death? Moving west with her son, Teddy and his alcoholism? The three sisters? The characteristics of each? Carolina as the oldest and in charge? Their being named after states?
5.Carolina in herself, serious, alone, difficulty in relationships, her strong friendship with Albert, not noticing his love for her, their being neighbours, their going out together, the various rituals, the book-signing and the discussion with the actress? Carolina and her relationship with her grandmother, love, embarrassment? The visits? The meals, Thanksgiving, the range of visitors, the grace? Her aunt Marilyn and her background? Discussions with her, hearing the story? Her father? A world of eccentricity? Her work at the television, the program, the collage of odd characters and their dates, the aftermath of the dates? The different types? Her assistant? Her meeting Heath, the attraction? Georgia ringing about her pregnancy, her losing her job? Heath and his dating her?
6.Georgia, antagonisms with Carolina when they were young, her pregnancy, the phone call, her character, the absent father – but his being around and turning up at the end? The difficult birth, the women present, her baby? Maine and her English accent, her age, riding horses, the rocking horse and the number, the echo of D.H. Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner? The lottery numbers, her visions? Giving them to her grandmother? Her grandmother trying to tell her to be normal? The fact that her grandmother had bought the Lotto tickets, had gone out to buy the ticket on the day she died? Maine saying that money wasn’t everything?
7.Heath, his type, the advertising world, British? Character, smug, dining out, the sexual relationship? Carolina and her wanting to let go, feel free, her response to Heath? Taking him to the family dinner, the various stories, the raucousness, her father being thirty days off the drink etc? His reaction, wanting to leave? Albert confronting him and making him tell the truth? His absence for six months, his later return? Carolina’s reaction? The fact that he got her job back – and that she went to the program again, later to resign?
8.Grandma and her story, Shirley Mac Laine’s style, exuberance, her friends, her companion, her free and easy attitudes, discussion of sex, relationships? Her love for her son, his drinking? Her caring for the girls, bringing them up? The trick with the toilet paper to get the discount? At home, the meals, the grace? Getting blessings on everyone, letting Carolina go? The friendship with Albert? The attitude towards Heath? The lottery, her going out to buy the tickets, the sadness of the accident and her death? And the irony of her reappearance in the flashback confronting Ted’s wife?
9.Ted, his arrival, his drinking, bringing the baby, at the meals, the thirty days off the drink, Carolina seeing him as failing?
10.Albert, his charm, writing, as Daphne St Clair? As a character, his love for Carolina, out with her, not declaring his love? The autograph and the discussion with the actress? The revelation of who he was? Writing the two books, concealing them, his getting a girlfriend? His coming to the dinner? The clash with Heath? The clash with Carolina? Dedicating the book to her? Her grandmother getting her to go to the bookshop, the book, the reading, listening to Albert read about their relationship – and the memory of the scene with her giving her her robe and the bath? The dedication and the end, the declaration?
11.A glimpse of an eccentric way of life, quality of life, people being themselves, allowing for mistakes and forgiveness?
