Nobody takes Baby out of the driver's seat

Rating: 5/10 (28 March 2018)

Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a young man who acts as a getaway driver for the mob. He suffers from tinnitus as a result of a car accident when he was a child, but uses music as a coping mechanism. Baby is initially happy acting as a getaway driver, but starts to re-evaluate his life when he falls for diner work Debora (Lily James). However, when Baby tries to break ties with the mob they make it clear that he cannot simply walk away from this life which ultimately puts a strain on his blossoming romance...
I've enjoyed a few Edgar Wright films in the past such as Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, but something didn't quite gel with his latest offering....
Perhaps part of the problem with this film is that Wright sets it out as being one thing; it starts with a bank robbery and then shows an extended car chase (which admittedly was fun to watch and was one of the highlights of the film). However, after the impressive car chase Wright pretty much slams the brakes on and the film never really manages to gather the same sort of momentum (apart from in say the last 20 minutes or so which were just insane). There is a lot of time spent explaining the heists and time spent introducing and re-introducing characters only to then find that the heists are over and done with before you know it... All that time spent planning the heists with no real excitement when the heists take place? This aspect of the film for me was anti-climactic and a bit disappointing. It wouldn't have been quite as bad if there would have been more jokes and humour, but this seemed to absent for much of the running time.
On the other side of the coin, you have Baby and his blossoming romance with Debora - his romance seems to be the catalyst which gives him the desire to go 'straight' and leave his life of crime behind. I'm normally the sort of person that gags at romances in film, but on odd occasions I am won over and genuinely believe or care in romances and in Baby Driver this is one of those odd occasions. Baby is quirky and interesting and that's possibly why Debora was drawn to him hence making the romance feel believable to me. Going back to Baby I did feel sorry for him and could see that he was a good person who was trapped by the mob and unable to escape - the only weakness with this thread is that we don't get to learn why he is indebted to the mob? That may have pushed the film up a notch for me.
It's the odd way that Wright mashes the story up here that left me with rather mixed feelings; on the one hand the heists, the planning and the crew etc are so dull and uninteresting which unfortunately meant that there were large sections of the film which didn't really pique my interest. However, Baby's character, his inner struggles and his romance were a stronger part of the story and did hold my interest more. Another issue I had with this film was the shear lunacy that I witnessed in the last 20 minutes - what the hell was going on there?
Still it isn't all bad; some of the performances are pretty good (Foxx is always good to watch and tries to make the film fun). The same can be said for Jon Hamm and Lily James who were good in support. The film also has Kevin Spacey in one of his last performances before the crap hit the fan for him.
Baby Driver is an uneven film with some bad and some good, but throughout the film Wright injects the film with just about enough pace to make it watchable. It's worth a look, but in my opinion this is not as good as some of Wright's earlier works.