Poor Beverly. If only she hadn't gotten pregnant. Things would have turned out a lot differently, if only...
Beverly spends most of "Riding in Cars with Boys", the latest film by Penny Marshall ("A League of Their Own", "Big") lamenting this fact. She is possessed of a keen wit and a strong talent for writing, but lacks the insight to realize how she shaped her own life into its current form. At 22, when her son is six years old, she is still complaining that she's trapped in her world. By this point, she's working two jobs, studying like mad to win a scholarship to college, and dealing with her childlike husband, Ray, who has secretly been harboring a heroin addiction. Not the life she had envisioned for herself as a teenager.
Beverly's life certainly starts with promise. She's already composing love sonnets of surprising poignancy to an insensitive jock at her school at the age of 15. Then she crosses paths with Ray Hasek, who shows her more respect than she has received from almost anyone in her life. Even though she will later blame others for ruining her life, the movie makes it clear that she is the aggressor in their relationship. "You don't want to get involved with a loser like me," warns Ray.
His warning certainly seems well-founded. Beverly ends up pregnant, and misses her last two years of high school while being hurried into a marriage with Ray by her appalled parents. She is forced to watch her friends grow up around her and gradually move on with their lives, while she remains in her small house with Ray on a street that seems like a favorite hangout of the drug dealers in the area.
Ray's character is crucial to the movie, and he is played by Steve Zahn in a remarkable performance. Zahn is known mostly for his comic roles as dimwits ("Saving Silverman", "Happy, Texas") but here he comes across in a more serious character. Ray is charming at first, and genuinely good-hearted, but helpless in the face of his addiction. He wants to do right by his family, but just doesn't have the capacity to fulfill their needs. Beverly puts up with him as long as she can. Listen to the dialogue in the scene where she explains to him why its time for him to leave, and watch Zahn as he reacts. He understands. When he turns up later in the film, it's telling that he is able to take responsibility for his shortcomings. "Staying away was the best thing I ever did in my life," he says, and he's absolutely right.
Beverly, on the other hand, is still stuck on blaming others for her lot in life. Her son, Jason, has picked up his habit as a young man, leading to a painful confrontation that highlights the complicated dynamics of their relationship, now that he is old enough that people mistake her for his girlfriend.
There are quite a few moments of truth in the movie. Beverly's father's toast at her wedding is perhaps honest, but cruelly revels in her shame. There's Beverly's own admission to her best friend, Fay: "I don't know if I love Jason, or if I have to love him." When the six-year-old Jason betrays his mother at a crucial moment, we can understand his anger toward her stems not just from her driving his father away, but also with the fact that Bev blames him for crushing her dreams.
Having read the book of the same name by Beverly Donofrio, I was struck with the honesty with which she paints herself. Yet in the end she doesn't quite come to the point where she understands that her life has taken the path she choose for it. This film has modified Beverly's life a great deal, but in the end, she is still the same person. It's a unusually honest and challenging film about the choices we make in life. The underlying message may be that although it might be small consolation, you're better off accepting responsibility for your decisions than to expend the energy required to resent them.
Beverly spends most of "Riding in Cars with Boys", the latest film by Penny Marshall ("A League of Their Own", "Big") lamenting this fact. She is possessed of a keen wit and a strong talent for writing, but lacks the insight to realize how she shaped her own life into its current form. At 22, when her son is six years old, she is still complaining that she's trapped in her world. By this point, she's working two jobs, studying like mad to win a scholarship to college, and dealing with her childlike husband, Ray, who has secretly been harboring a heroin addiction. Not the life she had envisioned for herself as a teenager.
Beverly's life certainly starts with promise. She's already composing love sonnets of surprising poignancy to an insensitive jock at her school at the age of 15. Then she crosses paths with Ray Hasek, who shows her more respect than she has received from almost anyone in her life. Even though she will later blame others for ruining her life, the movie makes it clear that she is the aggressor in their relationship. "You don't want to get involved with a loser like me," warns Ray.
His warning certainly seems well-founded. Beverly ends up pregnant, and misses her last two years of high school while being hurried into a marriage with Ray by her appalled parents. She is forced to watch her friends grow up around her and gradually move on with their lives, while she remains in her small house with Ray on a street that seems like a favorite hangout of the drug dealers in the area.
Ray's character is crucial to the movie, and he is played by Steve Zahn in a remarkable performance. Zahn is known mostly for his comic roles as dimwits ("Saving Silverman", "Happy, Texas") but here he comes across in a more serious character. Ray is charming at first, and genuinely good-hearted, but helpless in the face of his addiction. He wants to do right by his family, but just doesn't have the capacity to fulfill their needs. Beverly puts up with him as long as she can. Listen to the dialogue in the scene where she explains to him why its time for him to leave, and watch Zahn as he reacts. He understands. When he turns up later in the film, it's telling that he is able to take responsibility for his shortcomings. "Staying away was the best thing I ever did in my life," he says, and he's absolutely right.
Beverly, on the other hand, is still stuck on blaming others for her lot in life. Her son, Jason, has picked up his habit as a young man, leading to a painful confrontation that highlights the complicated dynamics of their relationship, now that he is old enough that people mistake her for his girlfriend.
There are quite a few moments of truth in the movie. Beverly's father's toast at her wedding is perhaps honest, but cruelly revels in her shame. There's Beverly's own admission to her best friend, Fay: "I don't know if I love Jason, or if I have to love him." When the six-year-old Jason betrays his mother at a crucial moment, we can understand his anger toward her stems not just from her driving his father away, but also with the fact that Bev blames him for crushing her dreams.
Having read the book of the same name by Beverly Donofrio, I was struck with the honesty with which she paints herself. Yet in the end she doesn't quite come to the point where she understands that her life has taken the path she choose for it. This film has modified Beverly's life a great deal, but in the end, she is still the same person. It's a unusually honest and challenging film about the choices we make in life. The underlying message may be that although it might be small consolation, you're better off accepting responsibility for your decisions than to expend the energy required to resent them.