AGW review crew member Lynn b. went to a screening of a new comedy/drama. Here are her thoughts on:

RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS

Columbia Pictures

Wild child/author Beverly Donofrio wanted Drew Barrymore to play her in the film adaptation of her memoir because "I'm not a very sympathetic character and Drew is inherently lovable". According to Drew, playing Bev in Riding in Cars with Boys gave her the insight she needed to reunite with her mom for Christmas for the first time in years. Drew's own "bad girl" past made her the ideal choice for the role of a teen girl who is pretty, smart and boy crazy.

In 1965, Bev Donofrio (Drew Barrymore) is a 15-year-old in a very strict, working class family in Connecticut. Her dream is to move to New York City and be a writer. Her teachers encourage her to go to college but, looking for love, she hooks up with Ray Hasek (Steve Zahn), a sweet but dim-witted 18-year-old high school dropout. Soon, Bev finds she is pregnant, a definite "no-no" in 1965. Her stern cop father (James Woods) is disappointed and embarrassed and her mom (Lorraine Bracco) is heartbroken.

Bev marries Ray, whom she really doesn't love, to save the family honor but having a son to care for and a husband who turns out to be a drug addict, smashes her plans to go to college. As the years pass, and Bev raises son Jason (played as an adult by Adam Garcia) alone, she relies on a close friendship with best girlfriend Fay (Brittany Murphy) who was also a teen mom. Years later, Jason is a young man and Bev is living in New York and about to have her first book published. Together, mom and son head for a brief reunion with Jason's dad that allows Jason to finally make a clean but friendly break with his mom and lead his own life.

Riding in Cars with Boys is an honest portrait of dysfunctional relationships. Handled as pure drama, it could be really dark but, with comedic moments peppered throughout, the film becomes a very "real" story that we all can relate to. All performances are solid although, in an effort to restrain her natural happy nature, Drew Barrymore seems a little too wooden in some of the scenes that require deep, more subtle dramatic reactions. It is refreshing, though, to see Drew play a very flawed character, an unwilling "mom" who blames her son for ruining her dreams. As her lowlife hubby, Steve Zahn is especially good. We all know good-hearted losers exactly like his character and Zahn has Ray totally figured out.

Director Penny Marshall pays great attention to detail and thus each character is well-drawn and believable. However, the action drags and the film crawls at times as, perhaps in an effort to be true to the book, the filmmakers insists on covering every detail of Bev's early life. Although guys can appreciate and even identify with some of the male characters in the film, "Cars" is essentially a "chick flick" that would benefit from tighter editing. If you are in the mood for a fast-paced comedy, the trailers for this film are misleading but, if you stick with the film for the long haul, it is a good story.

Rated: PG-13
Official website: www.sony.com/ridingincars

Directed by: Penny Marshall
Screenplay by: Morgan Upton Ward from the memoir by Beverly Donofrio
Starring:
Drew Barrymore as Beverly Donofrio
Steve Zahn as Ray Hasek
Brittany Murphy as Fay
Adam Garcia as Jason
James Woods as Mr. Donofrio
Lorraine Bracco as Mrs. Donofrio