Baby It's You

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.

I echo the comments of the other review posted here. The movie seems very uneven, and that adds to its lure. The interaction of Spano and Arquette seems all at once real and surreal. Any movie which makes me think of it into the next day, must have significant substance. It is rare to consider "uneven" a positive quality to a movie, but somehow this one pulls it off..

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.

This is definitely one of my favorite romantic films. It's well acted, well written and well directed. Arquette and Spano's chemistry is wonderful. With the people I've talked to who have seen this film, there seems to be something personal that they can relate to the story. It's definitely not a happy movie, but I think that's what makes it really stick with you. It's starts out somewhat like a period romance you might have seen before. About midway through it takes a turn and may seem to lose momentum. This is what sets it apart from other romances. It has this unpredictability to it that some people might find unsatisfying. I have seen it several times and each viewing is fascinating. It is very rare that such a bittersweet marvel of a film comes along and even rarer that it gets the attention it deserves. One of John Sayles' finest.

Quite a few careers got started in this 1982 Paramount release. Rosanna Arquette and Vincent Spano made their starring debuts, John Sayles landed his first major directing job and the film also features small parts by future stars Robert Downey Jr., Tracy Pollan and Matthew Modine. Set in 1965, a fine period soundtrack helps to propel this story of two mismatched teenagers (Arquette, Spano) whose love affair stems a lot of controversy within their community. The film is OK but time has not served it entirely well as sometimes it seems dated and it still suffers from being as obscure as it was when it was originally released.