Word: sheiking
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Ostensibly, the road is being built to facilitate trade between the two countries, but the consequences may be more far-reaching. Saudi Arabia, like most other gulf states, bans alcohol as well as such Western pleasures as dancing and nightclubbing. Reflecting the tolerant views of Sheik Isa, Bahrain is more relaxed: liquor flows freely in its hotels, and supper clubs offer the best in gulf entertainment. Already, many Saudis fly to the island looking for fun; some members of the austere Saudi royal family fear that Bahrain will turn into a gigantic weekend resort once the road is open...
Jill (played by a lovely newcomer, Rosanna Arquette) can't resist the long, lean body of a local thug named Albert "the Sheik". Although he's already been expelled from one high school, and doesn't look like a natural for St. Catherine's either, although he steals cars and drives something he calls the "ratmobile," although he says things like "You think I'm gonna make moves on you?", Jill finds herself suddenly necking passionately with him in dark movie houses and sneaking out of the house to hang out at a working class bar called Joey...
...friend careens around Trenton, does their relationship return to normal. It falters again when he's expelled from St. Catherine's picks up the next fall when Jill, feeling out of it at Sarah Lawrence, visits him in Miami. Yes, she loses her virginity and suddenly sees the Sheik--who gets his name from the condoms, he proudly informs her--as the not terribly smart, two-bit hustler that he is. Etcetera...
Vincent Spano plays Sheik like a young John Travolta, only better. He manages to act arrogant and oily without the sleaze that usually comes with it. Neither Spano nor Arquette has a chance against the movie's sound track, however. Whenever things reach a climactic pitch, whenever Sayles wants us to feel excited or depressed, he simply turns on the stereo. Instead of letting the players act, he pounds the mood home with driving rock. It's there when Sheik first strides into the school cafeteria. It's there when a wide-eyed Jill watches couples neck in Joey...
...sorts of lights. She matures quite convincingly during the movie, losing some of her knock-kneed innocence for Sarah Lawrence chic. But there are too many holes, too many inconsistencies to raise Baby It's You from the level of high school melodrama. How is it that Sheik steals cars and never gets caught? Why does Jill dress so nicely, but live in a very plain middle class house on a very plain street? How does she manage to fit all those nice outfits into two--count them!--suitcases when she goes to college? And what kind of parents would...