Riding in Cars with Boys achieves broad appeal as a tearjerker laced with hardscrabble humor. In the crowd-pleasing hands of director Penny Marshall, Beverly Donofrio's bestselling memoir loses much of its real-life gravity, but its rich humanity remains in abundance, especially since Drew Barrymore plays Donofrio with effortless charm. The movie spans 20 years, from Bev's pregnancy at 15 in 1963 (actually 17 in the book), through welfare parenthood with a heroin-addicted husband (Steve Zahn), and semi-adult resentment as her teenaged son (Adam Garcia) takes priority over her ultimate goal of finishing college and publishing her memoir. For all of Barrymore's winning tenacity, it's Zahn's goodhearted loser who gives the film its genuine soul while lending an edge to Marshall's cloying sentiment. The material begs for the subtler touch of James L. Brooks (who produced this and Marshall's more delicate hit Big), but that won't stop this movie from attracting a legion of admirers. --Jeff Shannon
(5 votes)
2.
She did everything wrong, but got everything right.
From celebrated director Penny Marshall comes the story of a girl who did everything wrong but got everything right. Make way for Beverly (Drew Barrymore), a smart, beautiful young woman who can't wait to grow up, much to the frustration of her police sergeant father (James Woods). Her life takes its first detour when she gets pregnant at age sixteen. The baby's father, her husband (Steve Zahn), turns out to need more mothering than her newborn son. But through all the trouble, Beverly makes a life that's more than she ever imagined and lives a story that's waiting to be told. Join the ride and watch Beverly kick life where it counts.
(7 votes)
3.
Beverly loves boys, but she knows her limits: nothing below the waist (hers), if she doesn't know the boy. Ray, however, a sweet-natured but shiftless young man is the exception to her rule and shortly after meeting him she ends up pregnant--at age fifteen. At the wedding insisted upon by her disappointed father, Bev finds out her best friend is also pregnant, and the two console each other for the youth they've lost. RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS is a true story based on the autobiography by Beverly Donofrio about her youthful days of revelry, rebellion, and teenage motherhood. Drew Barrymore is credible as an Italian-American girl who's far too smart to be stuck where she is in life, but it's Steve Zahn (THAT THING YOU DO, HAPPY, TEXAS) who steals the show in a long-overdue starring turn, with his heartfelt portrayal of a lost little boy who never finds his way to manhood. James Woods is Donofrio's alienated father. And Lorraine Bracco is her supportive, long-suffering mother who looks after the house, Bev's son Jason, and Ray, while Bev desperately tries for her GED and a scholarship to NYU. It's Bev's drive and unflagging ambition--and Penny Marshall's usual surehanded direction--that turn her hardship into the triumph of survival. Eventually, she realizes her own dreams, and her son's.
(4 votes)
4.
It's 1965, and Bev (Drew Barrymore) is a bright and gifted girl whose dream is to one day move to New York City and become a writer. But as a teenager in working-class Wallingford, Connecticut, the daughter of a cop and a homemaker, reading Shakespeare and one too many romance novels is the closest it seems she'll get. Her talent for writing has drawn praise from her teachers and helped fuel her ambition to go to college, but she is also a typical teen-sassy, funny, mercurial, rebellious... boy-crazy.
She meets Ray Hasek (Steve Zahn), a tough, not-too-bright 18-year-old dropout, at a party. Rejected by the boy she has a crush on, Bev turns to Ray, who is instantly taken with her, only to be stunned by an unintended and unexpected pregnancy months later.
Now she faces the nightmare of telling her parents. In a "nice" family in a place like Wallingford, unwed motherhood was definitely not embraced. Bev's suggestion that she keep the child and finish high school is thwarted by her stern father (James Woods) and heartbroken mother (Lorraine Bracco). She quits school and agrees to marry Ray to keep family peace. After a woefully awkward wedding ceremony, she and Ray set up housekeeping.
With her new husband working as an air conditioning installer and a carpet layer, and the birth of a baby boy (not her hoped for daughter), Bev is still determined to get her high school diploma and go on to college. The problem: six years into the marriage, she discovers that her husband is a drug addict, and he's spent all the money she has worked so hard to save for college. The marriage dissolves and Ray disappears from her life. Suddenly a single mom with no real career prospects, Bev faces a daunting question: Now what?
(3 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
Movie Database
In Theaters
