Drew Barrymore takes on a journey in Riding In Cars With Boys that starts with a mistake of getting hooked up with a loser and gets knocked up at age 15. Trying to do the right thing, Beverly Donofrio (Barrymore) marries Ray (Steve Zahn), the father, and it goes downhill from there. She can’t finish school because of the baby, Ray goes from one job to the next trying to make ends meat. If he would stop drinking, there probably would have been money and food.
After seeing her life go from good to gutter, all she wants to do is finish school, get a job and try to pull herself on to the street at least and having a kid to care for doesn’t help.
So, that is the movie in a nutshell. Penny Marshall directs this film based on the autobiography of Beverly Donofrio, who wrote the book in 1992. The film covers two and a half decades of time, with Drew playing the role as a fifteen year old through her mid-thirties. It shows the versatility of the actress. Marshall scores a win with this in my book too. She handles the sad and traumatic life that Donofrio led in a way that makes you connect emotional.
The film does lag a bit in the middle, but you are led to the emotional end of the movie that will have you and your box of Kleenex working over time as Drew and her grown-up son hash out his childhood, which is all worth it. I recommend this movie to chicks…
