Writer-director John Sayles has a gift for taking the most cliché-riddled formula and then – voila! – skirting cliché. Such is the redemptive power of full-blooded characterization and an understanding that people are unpredictable. Baby It’s You is a modest story of young love, but it nicely illustrates the filmmaker’s knack for wringing genuine complexity from what otherwise could be a tired exercise in genre.
In this case, Sayles finds pathos in the pampered-girl-meets-boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks scenario. Set in Trenton, N.J., during the mid-1960s, Baby It’s You centers on Jill Rosen (Rosanna Arquette), a sensible girl from a middle-class Jewish home who harbors dreams of being a stage actress. But then she falls for a handsome Italian-American rogue who calls himself the Sheik (Vincent Spano) and suddenly her family and friends worry about Jill’s future.
It’s a star-crossed couple, to be sure. She’s a good student; he’s a hoodlum who nominally attends high school. She likes the Supremes; he’s an acolyte of Frank Sinatra. But opposites attract, as the saying goes, and Jill and Sheik embark on a relationship. Sayles, a Hoboken native, knows these Jerseyites and has real affection for them; he resists predictable routes. Jill is complicated and sympathetic, but also self-involved and a bit of a user. Similarly, Sayles doesn’t shy away from Sheik’s violent side – the dude commits armed robbery, after all – but he imbues the character with vulnerability. The Sheik is desperate not to wind up like his working-stiff father, but he lacks fortitude and direction. For Sheik, Jill poses possible salvation.
Life intrudes and the two drift apart after high school. Jill goes to Sarah Lawrence College to pursue acting; Sheik, on the lam after a botched burglary, hightails it to Miami Beach and a career lip-synching Sinatra tunes. Sayles deftly nudges our sympathies from one to the other. The film lets its characters’ divergent paths shape the narrative. The resulting pace and tone might be too leisurely for some viewers, and Baby It’s You loses some momentum in the second act. Nevertheless, most of it is engrossing, replete with smart dialogue and a strong sense of place.
And in one of her first big-screen appearances, then-23-year-old Rosanna Arquette demonstrates considerable acting chops and precise comic timing. Spano does a fine job as Sheik, but Arquette’s Jill Rosen holds the film together. Other cast members include a baby-faced Matthew Modine making his film debut. Robert Downey Jr. is in the credits, too, but it must have been a blink-and-you’ll-miss it role.
Also noteworthy is the picture’s use of rock ‘n’ roll. Sayles effectively interweaves music from the time period – Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, the Trashmen, Ben E. King and the Ronettes (whose “Baby, It’s You” provides the movie’s title) – but he is sparing enough to keep things from lapsing into kitsch.
And there are some interesting musical anomalies. The Sheik’s style and manner inspire Sayles to tap some terrific Bruce Springsteen tracks. “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” plays when Sheik first makes a play for Jill in the school cafeteria, while “She’s the One” and “Adam Raised a Cain” are used prominently later in the picture. The time frame for The Boss’ songs might be all wrong, but they possess an emotional integrity and Jersey ethos that underscore the characters’ predicaments.
Cutting to the Chase with Phil Bacharach 