Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:12 - Released 10/19/01
RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:12 - Released 10/19/01
Riding In Cars With Boys tells the autobiographical
story of author Beverly D'Onofrio, a girl who wanted to be a writer
but was forced to put her life on hold when she became pregnant
in 1968 at age 15. Adapted for the screen by executive producer
Morgan Upton Ward (from D'Onofrio's book of the same name) and
directed by Penny Marshall, the film stars Drew Barrymore and
Steve Zahn doing some of their best work to date, but is somewhat
marred by Barrymore's apparent inability to keep a straight face.
I have complained about this before; it's not that I think she
is a poor actress—in fact I find her extremely talented and
quite charming—but the fact that she can't get through a
scene, no matter how serious the subject matter, without smirking,
is distracting and difficult to ignore. This is especially annoying
here because this film, a serious story about a woman who had
to face many hardships growing up alongside her own child, contains
little to laugh about.
The story begins in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1961, where
a 10 -year-old Bev (Mika Boorem) is seen riding in the cruiser
with her policeman father (James Woods), together singing the
Everly Brothers song "Dream." After this tender relationship
is established, we segue to the 35-year-old Beverly (Barrymore),
estranged from her father and her ex-husband, riding to New York
City with her college age son, Jason (Adam Garcia). This is a
big day for her. "Life is just 4 or 5 big days that change
everything," she says to him. And then we return to the late
'60s, on another "big day," when an ill-advised romp
in a boy's car results in a major life change. Although she had
wanted to go to college and become an author, Beverly must marry
and settle down. Ray (Zahn) is not her ideal man, but he is the
father of her child.
The intervening years of Beverly's life play out much in the
same way as It's A Wonderful Life, with one opportunity
after another passing her by, usually because of the needs of
her growing boy (played by several different young actors) and/or
the delinquency of her well-meaning but irresponsible and eventually
drug-addicted husband. She attempts to get her high school equivalency
degree, she tries to get into college, she dreams of moving to
New York or California, she commiserates with her best friend
Fay (Brittany Murphy), all the while caring for Jason as best
she can and dealing with Ray's failure as a morally responsible
human being.
Although this film deals with the depressing minutiae of a
life unfulfilled, it does not dwell on Beverly's misery. She is
painted as a self-absorbed and emotionally immature young woman
who is concurrently raising and being raised by her own child,
but there is enough tenderness and true caring on the part of
all the characters to win our sympathy. Zahn is subtly charming
as the loving loser he portrays, we understand what Bev sees in
him even though he does her wrong time and time again. The little
boys who play Jason are all honest and believable, especially
Logan Arens (age 3) and Cody Arens (age 6), who radiate cute and
yet don't push it so far as to be cloying. Along with Barrymore
and Zahn, they share some heartbreakingly touching moments. Meanwhile,
Barrymore, who apparently re-established communication with her
own estranged mother, Ildiko Jaid, as a result of filming this
movie, grows into the role, transforming with only minor discomfort
from a giggling teen to a jaded, middle-aged woman. She and director
Marshall have created something here, a bittersweet comment on
a life that didn't go as planned.
But still there's the smirking. Dammit. ****