Baby, It's You

"Baby, It's You" is a love story about a young woman named Jill (Rosanna Arquette), who grows up in New Jersey during the sixties and meets a troubled and troublesome swindler named Sheik (Vincent Spano). They go out together during highschool but once college days come, Jill forgets Sheik and he becomes a Frank Sinatra impersonator for a fancy restaurant in Miami. But after he is booted from the joint and drives all the way back to New Jersey to be with her, she admits she no longer has feelings for him.

Movies like this can be a bit hard to review because on a technical level they are worthless. Sometimes, though, the film itself is fun to watch--I am a sucker for old eighties comedies, the decade of low-budget comedies that disappeared into a vault somewhere and air on television at three o'clock in the morning. "Baby, It's You," however, isn't even that fun to watch, mainly because it goes nowhere for its two-hour running time. Sure, it kept my interest, and there's no doubt that it is a pretty intriguing film, but it's been done before in a better fashion--and all in all, "Baby, It's You" likes to repeat itself. A lot.

Things don't move nearly as quickly as they should. The setup for the movie takes forever--and then we find out the setup wasn't a setup at all. I left wondering, What IS the point of this movie? The core message is pretty simple--a lovebird couple seperate when college comes around and one of them loses the attraction for the other. But "Baby, It's You" doesn't do this like it should--it takes side routes into too many subplots. For example, at first Jill hates Sheik. Then she goes out with him. Then she breaks up with him. Then he kidnaps her, holds a gun to her head and tells her to say she's sorry. Then they're back together. Then Sheik commits a robbery and almost gets caught. Then they seperate. Then...

What is the point? Why the stupid subplots? Why would Jill love a ruthless punk who stalks and kidnaps her? This is a depressing movie, not because of what happens, but simply because it goes nowhere. "Baby, It's You" is strangely intriguing, but as a film it should have gone through a much greater thought process before they decided to put it on the big screen. After all, there is a reason that it is one of the most unknown films of all time.

I did find some things in "Baby, It's You" interesting, such as how Sheik corrupts Jill, but then when he turns around to be with her again, she acts like he did early on in the film. For example: Sheik is a rich playboy criminal in the beginning who cheats on Jill and so on and so forth. Jill doesn't want to "do it" with Sheik. But after college, she turns into the promiscuous one and he turns into the moral one. She becomes a drunk, depressed soul. Is that the point of the movie? That hanging around the wrong crowd can rub off on you? Or is the point that people who fall in love aren't always in love? Or is it just meant to be a depressing love story? Who cares. And I'm not stating that two-word sentence as a question.

2.5/5 stars.

• John Ulmer

Unlike other viewers, I didn't really connect with this on any major level. And I don't think their longing for each other was anything more than adolescent infatuation (hey, we've all been there!), made all the more desperate by separation anxiety. A couple of 18-year-olds struggling to find themselves in the world. OK as a romantic comedy drama, but no great shakes.

Performances were all solid. Interesting to see Matthew Modine pop up briefly as the college boyfriend. And it looked great -- nice and moody -- seemed like something out of the 1960s.

One thing bothered me: The use of Bruce Springsteen songs from the 1970s in a movie that was to have taken place in 1967 (not 1965, as another reviewer said -- the signs at Rosanna Arquette's prom clearly said, "Class of 1967"). Anyway, those Springsteen songs from the soundtrack wouldn't have been out yet. But I guess it was done to add a "Jersey feel" to the movie.

"Baby It's You" isn't exactly a "great film," but it sure is an accurate and believable story about young love. Arquette is the Jewish high school girl who is going places in life. She plays it safe, but she's bored with it all. Until she meets Sheik, the Italian guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He's a dreamer and his future is uncertain, but... man is he a sharp dresser and cooler than any of the lame boys in high school. This guy even makes the male teachers feel inadequate with his expensive suits and suave good looks. Sheik is played by Vincent Spano, an extremely underrated and unappreciated actor who usually appeared in movies that were unworthy of his qualities. Whenever Spano is on screen the movie really shines. The story follows Rosanna's character beyond high school and into college, and as is usually the case, she begins to outgrow her man... or so she thinks. Because the mature guys she meets are a bunch of complete bores, and they all pale in comparison to Sheik, who gives up everything to return to Jersey from Florida, in a last ditch attempt to win back the love of his life. That's basically it, but the performances and the realistic story are enough to maintain interest. Taking place in the early 60s, director John Sayles captures the period in beautiful detail, and the soundtrack is excellent, featuring some early Bruce Springsteen songs, which fit the mood perfectly. Even though the songs are patently 70s and not from the Era in which the movie takes place, they still sound right. I think "Baby It's You" is somewhat of a cult film today, and deservedly so. Fans of either Rosanna Arquette or Vincent Spano will thoroughly enjoy it, as will those who can appreciate an honest look at young love...

I always dreamed and fantasized about falling for a hood like Sheik. "Nice" girls who grew up in the 1960's and were in the honor society were supposed to achieve the questionable goal of marrying a nice boy who would earn well and buy us a nice house in the suburbs, where we would presumably have some nice children...

And this, in a word, is what lends "Baby, It's You" its poignancy. High school is the one place, the last place, in which the unlikely and all-too-temporary coupling of a female "achiever" bound for suburban "niceness" and the magnetic male "underachiever" bound for urban "unniceness" can occur. Sheik/Albert Capadilupo ("Is he an Arab?" "No, Italian.") embodies all the qualities that leader-type Jill Rosen has been told time and time again do not make a good, suitable husband or match or date: he disdains academic achievement, he is "good" with his hands, he drives fast, he has underworld connections, he knows how to kiss..and possibly how to do other things. Jill Rosen, in turn, has dreamy eyes, answers questions in class, gets good grades, and has ambitions of being something very much more than a "wife," qualities which fascinate and often infuriate Sheikh.

In the course of the movie, the on-again, off-again romance between them -which features all the quirkiness and unpredictability of most high-school romances, and then some- lights up, then sputters, then heats up again. My favorite movie scene of all time takes place when a sleepless maniacal Sheik barrels up US Route 1 from Miami in a series of stolen cars, then collars numerous shocked and amazed debutante types in the Student Center in order to locate Jill.

Free of sci-fi special effects or surrealistic flashbacks, this is a movie for people who love and believe in "romance" in the truest sense of the word - that one brief "Camelot"-like time when two people from different backgrounds and even worlds light up the world for each other, even though they sense it will end all too soon.

In spite of the negative review above I would say this is a good film and a story that may hang around in your mind for a long time. It isn't so much a "movie story," a la Meg Ryan romantic comedy type, as it is a slice of life. The characters in this movie are much more like the people you went to high school and college with than they are like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan! Life is messy and confusing and people change. People are attracted to the wrong people all the time. They make bad choices. They do things they can never forget. This movie reflects these human foibles and that is why it is a great small movie that got overlooked and under-appreciated.