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I picked up this movie because Netflix said:In this romantic comedy featuring Shirley MacLaine as a wacky grandma, Southern girl Carolina (Julia Stiles) envisions an entirely different existence for herself, far from the maddening mix that is her family. So, she leaves home for California, where she hopes she'll find some tranquility. But her efforts are soon wasted when she finds herself torn between two men. Who will win her heart?
I think I saw it on a list of poly movies too, but I'm not certain about that.
This was NOT a poly movie. It was your standard romance story of: girl has fucked up love-life and fucked-up family, girl has close male friend, girl meets dashing man, girl sleeps with man on first date, close male friend reveals his love for girl, girl breaks his heart then gets her own heart broken by dashing man, girl proclaims love for best friend too late, as he now has a girlfriend, followed by happy ending as best friend surprises her by showing up somewhere emotionally meaningful and sweeping her off her feet.
Blah, blah, predictable, boring, not poly.
Carolina never really even finds herself "torn between two men". She is close friends with her neighbor, Albert, whom both insist is "just a friend" several times throughout the movie. Albert insists she try to loosen up a bit, so Carolina starts dating Heath. We know he's not the right guy for her because she has sex with him on the first date. Remember, in movieland, the "right guy" is the one who never tries to fuck the girl and the "wrong guy" is the one the girl is immediately attracted to. Standard Hollywood Formula #1. So, they have sex, then Carolina immediately tries to insert him into her life in a serious and meaningful way, namely by inviting him to Christmas dinner with her extremely eccentric (i.e. white-trash) family headed by her overbearing grandmother.
Heath, a proper Brittish gentleman, is totally out of place, whereas Albert fits right in like one of the family and has for years. Meanwhile, Albert announces his love for Carolina, who rejects him because she thinks of him as a friend and she is involved with Heath. Albert then goes out and gets a girlfriend, whom we meet when Carolina bumps into her in a very awkward manner, obviously intended to imply to the audience that she reciprocates the attraction and is now jealous and trying to ignore it.
After Heath's rather uncomfortable introduction to Carolina's family, he just disappears for 5 months with no word. Carolina spends the rest of the film watching sadly as Albert continues to date his girlfriend, meet her family, and generally withdraw form Carolina's life, while her own family life gets more and more complicated and her family gets more and more eccentric.
Finally, Heath shows back up to apologize, but when Carolina doesn't immediately fall at his feet, he makes his one gesture and gives up, leaving Carolina looking after him with an exrpession that says "WTF?"
After a while, Carolina figures out that she loves Albert and tells him so, obviously expecting him to fall into her arms. He, predictably, gets angry at her presumption that he was just sitting around waiting for her to deign to notice him and leaves. So Carolina goes back to work in California and tries to forget her brief foray into dating.
Then, a tragedy befalls her family and she ends up back in her hometown, slowly assuming her grandmother's matriarchal position in the family - a position she resented until her grandmother's death revealed how much Carolina really loved her grandmother and how much her family depended upon her. While leading a family holiday dinner (much contested by Carolina over the years and, consequently, a source of major emotional meaning for her now), Albert shows up to announce his undying love for Carolina, who falls into his arms and they live happily ever after with her teenage unwed-mother sister, her crazy psychic sister, her madam aunt, her drunk father, and her grandmother's married boyfriend.
*A point* - the married boyfriend is the one possibly poly moment in the whole film, and the "poly" portion is debatable. Grandma is going out on a date for New Year's Eve with her boyfriend - the first time we've heard any mention of him in the whole movie. Carolina's youngest sister asks "isn't he married?" Grandma explains that, yes, he is married, but they have an "arrangement", and in this day and age, that's all anyone can ask for. Throughout the movie, she has portrayed herself as a woman who does what she wants because she wants to and to hell with propriety, and the only way to be happy is to live for what you want, not for what others want.
She doesn't give any details, but the family all knows who he is, and he comes in and says hi to all of them. If this were a secret, surely the teenage and early 20-something granddaughters wouldn't have had the chance to meet him, especially in a small southern town like theirs. Grandma has a habit of being accepting of otherwise socially-unacceptable people. Her daughter, for instance (Carolina's aunt) used to be a prostitute and now runs a successful whorehouse. This is talked about openly and some of the aunt's "girls" are even invited to family events. They joke about it over a bridge game.
Basically, the movie was not poly, it was romantic drivel. The grandmother character was supposed to be the wise old, eccentric matriarch who flew in the face of convention with her common-sense wisdom and steely pride. Carolina was supposed to be the strong, independent woman who manages to leave her humble beginnings, make a name and an income for herself, only to learn the value of family at the end. What it turned out to be was an overbearing, thoroughly detestable, meddling, cranky old woman whose parental skills resulted in a drunk and a prostitute and perpetuated the total fuckups in the following generations, and a young woman who had pretty nearly no redeeming social skills. She was either the hard-as-nails, no-nonsense businesswoman or the naive and inexperienced little girl playing at romance.
Don't waste your time.
I think I saw it on a list of poly movies too, but I'm not certain about that.
This was NOT a poly movie. It was your standard romance story of: girl has fucked up love-life and fucked-up family, girl has close male friend, girl meets dashing man, girl sleeps with man on first date, close male friend reveals his love for girl, girl breaks his heart then gets her own heart broken by dashing man, girl proclaims love for best friend too late, as he now has a girlfriend, followed by happy ending as best friend surprises her by showing up somewhere emotionally meaningful and sweeping her off her feet.
Blah, blah, predictable, boring, not poly.
Carolina never really even finds herself "torn between two men". She is close friends with her neighbor, Albert, whom both insist is "just a friend" several times throughout the movie. Albert insists she try to loosen up a bit, so Carolina starts dating Heath. We know he's not the right guy for her because she has sex with him on the first date. Remember, in movieland, the "right guy" is the one who never tries to fuck the girl and the "wrong guy" is the one the girl is immediately attracted to. Standard Hollywood Formula #1. So, they have sex, then Carolina immediately tries to insert him into her life in a serious and meaningful way, namely by inviting him to Christmas dinner with her extremely eccentric (i.e. white-trash) family headed by her overbearing grandmother.
Heath, a proper Brittish gentleman, is totally out of place, whereas Albert fits right in like one of the family and has for years. Meanwhile, Albert announces his love for Carolina, who rejects him because she thinks of him as a friend and she is involved with Heath. Albert then goes out and gets a girlfriend, whom we meet when Carolina bumps into her in a very awkward manner, obviously intended to imply to the audience that she reciprocates the attraction and is now jealous and trying to ignore it.
After Heath's rather uncomfortable introduction to Carolina's family, he just disappears for 5 months with no word. Carolina spends the rest of the film watching sadly as Albert continues to date his girlfriend, meet her family, and generally withdraw form Carolina's life, while her own family life gets more and more complicated and her family gets more and more eccentric.
Finally, Heath shows back up to apologize, but when Carolina doesn't immediately fall at his feet, he makes his one gesture and gives up, leaving Carolina looking after him with an exrpession that says "WTF?"
After a while, Carolina figures out that she loves Albert and tells him so, obviously expecting him to fall into her arms. He, predictably, gets angry at her presumption that he was just sitting around waiting for her to deign to notice him and leaves. So Carolina goes back to work in California and tries to forget her brief foray into dating.
Then, a tragedy befalls her family and she ends up back in her hometown, slowly assuming her grandmother's matriarchal position in the family - a position she resented until her grandmother's death revealed how much Carolina really loved her grandmother and how much her family depended upon her. While leading a family holiday dinner (much contested by Carolina over the years and, consequently, a source of major emotional meaning for her now), Albert shows up to announce his undying love for Carolina, who falls into his arms and they live happily ever after with her teenage unwed-mother sister, her crazy psychic sister, her madam aunt, her drunk father, and her grandmother's married boyfriend.
*A point* - the married boyfriend is the one possibly poly moment in the whole film, and the "poly" portion is debatable. Grandma is going out on a date for New Year's Eve with her boyfriend - the first time we've heard any mention of him in the whole movie. Carolina's youngest sister asks "isn't he married?" Grandma explains that, yes, he is married, but they have an "arrangement", and in this day and age, that's all anyone can ask for. Throughout the movie, she has portrayed herself as a woman who does what she wants because she wants to and to hell with propriety, and the only way to be happy is to live for what you want, not for what others want.
She doesn't give any details, but the family all knows who he is, and he comes in and says hi to all of them. If this were a secret, surely the teenage and early 20-something granddaughters wouldn't have had the chance to meet him, especially in a small southern town like theirs. Grandma has a habit of being accepting of otherwise socially-unacceptable people. Her daughter, for instance (Carolina's aunt) used to be a prostitute and now runs a successful whorehouse. This is talked about openly and some of the aunt's "girls" are even invited to family events. They joke about it over a bridge game.
Basically, the movie was not poly, it was romantic drivel. The grandmother character was supposed to be the wise old, eccentric matriarch who flew in the face of convention with her common-sense wisdom and steely pride. Carolina was supposed to be the strong, independent woman who manages to leave her humble beginnings, make a name and an income for herself, only to learn the value of family at the end. What it turned out to be was an overbearing, thoroughly detestable, meddling, cranky old woman whose parental skills resulted in a drunk and a prostitute and perpetuated the total fuckups in the following generations, and a young woman who had pretty nearly no redeeming social skills. She was either the hard-as-nails, no-nonsense businesswoman or the naive and inexperienced little girl playing at romance.
Don't waste your time.
