Carolina

Carolina Mirabeau is a young California woman who works as a producer on a television game show and longs for an orderly life with a steady partner. Her reality is far messier: she was raised by her eccentric grandmother after her hard-drinking father left his daughters in her care, and her household still includes her dreamy younger sister and a strong-willed youngest sibling. When a wealthy advertising man seems to offer the romance she wants, her oldest friend, a neighbor who writes romance novels, complicates her feelings and forces her to weigh independence against loyalty to her family.

The 2003 comedy romance was directed by Marleen Gorris, whose third feature, Antonia's Line, preceded it in her filmography. Katherine Fugate wrote the screenplay, produced by Carol Baum, Martin Bregman and Kate Guinzburg. Julia Stiles plays Carolina, with Alessandro Nivola as Albert, Shirley MacLaine as Grandmother Mirabeau, Mika Boorem, Azura Skye and Edward Atterton among a credited cast of 22.

Made on a budget of 15 million US dollars, the film runs 97 minutes. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 5.6/10 from 309 reviews, while on TMDB its audience rating stands at 5.8/10 from 88 votes, a narrow gap that places both measures in similar territory.