Was the Romance in Baby Driver Necessary?
I usually don’t see movies in the theater twice, but somehow, I had the pleasure of seeing Baby Driver that many times. The first time, I was alone, absorbing the movie, experiencing it in real time. (On Twitter, I excitedly tweeted about being alone in the theater, and then my dreams were crushed when I was forced to share the room with sixteen other people.) Then, a second time, I saw it with a friend. While watching the movie the second time, instead of being enamored by the plot and music, I found myself asking if the romantic subplot was necessary at all.
Baby Driver is property of Working Title Films
Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a naive, well—a baby. His love for Debbie, as a teen is justified, however, from an audience standpoint, I really could not care less. What’s Edgar Wright’s excuse for this romance? To shove more edgy music down my throat, or to actually make us care about Baby on some other level besides making us feel badly for him because he doesn’t have parents? Get in line little orphan Annie, there are tons of you waiting for the sad, dead parents train.
The laundromat scene was kind of cute, but overall, their relationship lacked substance. The romance itself was completely made to create an urgency for Baby, a reason to want to get out of the business, however, he already had a reason to get out: his foster father’s safety. Why couldn’t there have been a scene where Baby and Joseph (CJ Jones) dance to music together, like they briefly do while rocking out to Carla Thomas’ “B-A-B-Y”?
As a romance, it doesn’t really hold substance, but, as a lonely adult-child who craves intimacy and attention, I get that Baby went for the first person who had a nice voice and worked at the diner his mom once worked at it. Chances are, if I were Baby, I’d fall in love with Debbie (Lily James) too.
What I couldn’t beef with is that (~*spoilers*~) Debbie was so ride or die for Baby. If you think about it, they haven’t been dating that long. At best, the movie is a window of three months. Either way, Debbie’s love for Baby was super extreme. She was willing to become some weird ass outlaw for him, and was even willing to wait five or more years for his ass. It was almost looking in a mirror of Buddy and Darling, creating some weird social commentary on what a life of romance and crime could lead to.
Also, Debbie is definitely older than 21, while Baby is not. How do I know that? Baby was drinking soda while Debbie was drinking a glass of wine in that fancy restaurant. I couldn’t help but think about that for days on end. Maybe he was just saying sober so he could drive, but also, we all know that’s not the case from a Hollywood stylistic standpoint. So not only is Baby a literal child, but this girl is stopping herself from having some wild college smooches or young tycoon hook ups or whatever. It just baffles my mind that she was willing to wait for Baby. Even in the court case, she didn’t even willingly call Baby her “boyfriend” she just said “a friend that wanted to be something more,” or whatever cop out she said. Girl, if you’re willing to wait more than five years for some pasty ass, then you definitely have feelings for him.
Edgar Wright has a point with creating this Baby/Debbie relationship, but also in my mind it just doesn’t add up. I doubt anybody would feel that strongly in this type of situation. it just doesn’t feel right. Or dare I say, Wright?
