‘Baby Driver’ exhilarating but disappoints in the end
Not least fascinating of the rules for cutting-edge action films these days is that villains — especially the arch villain — must be killed not once but at least two or three times, for good measure.
That’s my main conclusion at the conclusion of “Baby Driver.” No spoiler. We all know who’s gonna survive and who isn’t before we even get settled in with our overpriced popcorn.
The mayhem kicks off impressively with an adrenalin-pumping car chase before the opening credits even roll. Don’t try these moves on the Parkway West, unless the incredibly adept (and cute) Ansel Elgort is at the wheel.
He plays Baby, the young music-fueled getaway driver of crimes past, a strong, silent, aloof kinda guy who’s always plugged into his earphones and plugged out of touch with his cohorts — or so it seems — until crime boss Doc (Kevin Spacey) makes him an offer he should but doesn’t refuse.
Just one last job and he’s done, Baby promises, in sign language, to his beloved, wheelchair-bound, African-American foster father — a sweet man who can neither hear nor speak. He’s four or five minorities wrapped into one. Baby’s partners in the big armored truck heist are Buddy (Jon Hamm) and Bats (Jamie Foxx), who regard him and his silence as “retarded.”
In fact, Doc explains, he was traumatized as a kid in the car accident that killed his mom. But nowadays, he cares only for survival — and waitress Debora (Lily James), the girl of his dreams.
Director-writer Edgar Wright started work on this idea in 1995 but didn't finish the script until 2011 and the film until this year. Originally set in L.A., he finally shot it in Atlanta for tax incentive reasons, hiring local writers there to help rewrite it authentically.
FYI, automotive aficionados: Baby’s red car is a 2007 Subaru WRX. No CGI was used in the car chase sequences. The driving is real. So is the fine choreography of Ryan Heffington and cinematography of Bill Pope (“The Matrix,” “Spiderman”), which pay homage to the old chase meisters of “The French Connection” and “Bullitt” fame.
FYI, Edgar Wright aficionados: This director’s genre romps range from the
much-loved cult favorites “Shaun of the Dead” (2002) and “Hot Fuzz” (2007) to the less-loved but no less original “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (2010) and “The World's End” (2013). “Baby Driver,” his first solo screenplay, includes a hilarious sequence in which the robbers all wear Mike Myers masks and another in which Mr. Foxx describes firearms as cuts of pork — before massacring the arms dealers who are peddling them.
But the best thing about this “Baby” is its perfect synchronization of action and music — so smooth it even includes a glass harmonica riff when Baby runs his fingers around the rim of a wineglass. The title tune, from Simon & Garfunkel’s song on their 1970 “Bridge Over Troubled Water” album, is heard over the end credits. The wonderful “narrative” music includes everything from “Harlem Shuffle” and “B-A-B-Y” by Carla Thomas to “Baby Let Me Take You” by the Detroit Emeralds and “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby” by Sam & Dave — with Queen’s “Brighton Rock” (from the “Sheer Heart Attack” album) a major anthem throughout.
Baby-faced Mr. Elgort (an empathetic cancer victim in “The Fault in Our Stars”) executes excellent moves from the outset, whether grooving to his windshield wipers or playing air guitar. Never mind that he has a total of two facial expressions in his repertoire: He’s so nice to look at, with so few lines to deliver and emotions to express, that’s pretty much all he needs.
The unflappable Mr. Spacey predictably steals the show.
Lurching between mind-boggling car chases and a cliched young love subplot, the film starts strong and ends weak — both exhilarating and disappointing — but worth seeing for its razzle-dazzle, if mindless, action.
One dares not speak of credulity in the “Transformers” age. The baby boomers are dead (or nearly so). Long live the baby dolls.