I don't know what the critics are talking about. I think it all comes down to the baby. The baby inherits its entree into planet earth, through no fault of its own. Who the parents are, the life they had, and so on.
Given the totality of the circumstances, the only thing the parents could do was just leave. According to the law, the protagonist (resembles Paul Walker) is guilty of murder, as the lady at the bank was killed during the commission of a felony. It was Sam that conceived the robbery, and had it not been for the robbery, the lady would not have been killed. So her blood is eternally on Sam's hands.
The movie gives us a sort of happy ending, as Sam manages to get away with the girl, with the money, to start that new life, but at the cost of the lady's life at the bank.
The pregnant girlfriend, an accomplice to felony murder by enabling Sam to escape, has unclean hands as well.
Imagine now the baby is born, it inherits this legacy by default. The statute of limitations never runs out on murder. Let's say the baby, now 14 years old, discovers the details of the crime. Should the child report the matter to the authorities? If not, does the sin of the parent stain the child's hands? And would not, for the sake of pure loyalty, not turn his parents in? Was it better for the child for the parents to run off and not turn themselves in, or to have them do so for the sake of conscience, and have the child born in prison, to be later adopted, or placed into foster care? While this movie is not necessarily indicative of common place events, it is a symbol of other sorts of compromises that are very common parents find themselves in prior to a birth of a child.
Imagine the compromised position so many millions of children are placed in for the sake of their parents, doomed to inherit and/or suffer the consequences of the compromise.
If you are going to bring a child into the world, you have a solemn duty not to have it all transpire in a compromised context. The child has no fault, and you curse their existence before it even starts. It is the crime that is committed all the time in this world and is never punished, and the child suffers the penalty.
To bring a child into this world, you must be a great man and great woman, and must be committed to loving each other, and to communicate that love to the child, and give the child the highest and the best. Anything short of that and you should never bring a child into this world.
