Riding in Cars with Boys (Special Edition) (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by Morgan Upton Ward, based upon the book by Beverly Donofrio
Directed by Penny Marshall
Starring Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, James Woods, Adam Garcia, Brittany Murphy, Lorraine Bracco

Features:

• audio commentary with Drew Barrymore
  
• HBO making-of special
  
• four behind-the-scenes featurettes
  
• theatrical trailers
  
• production notes
  
• filmographies of main characters
  

Rating: PG-13

Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Pass.

Riding in Cars with Boys, based on the life and book by Beverly Donofrio, spans 20 years of Bev's life, from her pregnancy at 15 (17 in the book), through to her publication in 1983. Along the way, Bev faces the death of her dream of attending college, an addict husband and welfare parenthood, the emotional distance of several adults, and various other life disturbances. Through it all, Bev does what she believes is best for herself and never loses sight of her dream.

Barrymore as Donofrio is charming and determined to seem real. The part of Bev is essentially a rather self-righteous, arrogant, and selfish character, but Barrymore manages to make Bev likable. Steve Zahn as Bev's heroin-addict husband Raymond is wonderful; he makes a part that could simply have been played to make Bev look like a long-suffering martyr into a real human being. Yes, perhaps he's a moron, but he's a moron with heart and you want to believe he'll come through. Adam Garcia as Bev's son Jason is appropriately a mixture of bitterness and stability. James Woods, as Bev's policeman father, does a great job of being just emotionally cold enough that we feel sorry for her without being a complete ogre.

Caught between heavy-handed sentiment and grating depression, Riding in Cars with Boys at times isn't sure what it's supposed to be. Barrymore has the thankless task of centering and guiding the movie; luckily, she is strong enough to carry the film forward, even in the face of a rather bleak and repetitive plot. The real problem is that while you want to love everyone in the film, they're just isn't anyone to really admire. You could respect Bev for pushing through with her dreams to publish even without a college degree, but given how nearly cruel she was to her son and how snotty she is later to others, you start asking yourself why she thinks she gets a better life than any of the women around her who were suffering right along with her. At what point does sleeping with the class drop-out/drug addict seem like a good idea, especially at 15? If we're supposed to admire her so very much, why doesn't she take herself and Jason to California or at least keep herself away from things that will have her arrested while she yells at Ray for the same thing? If having a child was such a burden, why not put the child up for adoption? Barrymore can make Bev likable, but she can't make us understand. Perhaps the book is a fuller look at why Bev deserves to be forgiven by Jason (and why Jason deserves his own breaks, actually). No one except Ray ever quite takes responsibility for the things they themselves merrily screwed up, and he can't seem to do much about his knowledge.

The features are the real stars of this disc. Packed with behind-the-scenes information, the featurettes go a little way toward teaching more about the real woman behind Bev. We also get to see the real Jason. Barrymore's commentary is both amusing in places and touching, as she explains more about the film-making process and her thoughts during this film. The graphics of the animated menus are interesting, too, as are the scene selection menus.

But perhaps the lesson of Riding in Cars with Boys is that you can never really know what pain someone is hiding in their life and how much of an emotional struggle every day can be. It also serves as a cautionary tale about being willful; maybe there really is a point when you shouldn't be making your own choices if you'll only get yourself into more and more trouble. There just should have been more there to learn from, not just to tug at the heartstrings or make you think there must be something you're missing. Bev's life was terribly unhappy, but there doesn't seem to be much to redeem it, or the movie, other than pat solutions and predictable feel-good conclusions.