Based on the best-selling 1992 memoir of Beverly Donofrio, "Riding in Cars with Boys" (2001) stars Drew Barrymore as 15 year-old Beverly who gets knocked-up in 1965 and marries the likable loser father (Steve Zahn). Can she turn a bad situation around to the good in the years to come?
There are too many slow stretches in this amiable drama and it's a bit too long, but it won me over from numerous angles: Drew's charisma, James Wood as her cop father, Lorraine Bracco as the mother, Brittany Murphy as her best friend, the quality New Jersey/New York locations (note the ending), the realistic struggle of living with an alcoholic/addict, the heaviness of the proceedings lightened up by sporadic humor and the focus on perseverance with a good attitude to turn a negative situation around to the positive.
Sara Gilbert plays a peripheral character, a friend of Beverly's, revealing that she's actually attractive in a roundish (not fat) way. Adam Garcia is notable as Beverly's adult son.
The film runs 132 minutes.
GRADE: B-
There are too many slow stretches in this amiable drama and it's a bit too long, but it won me over from numerous angles: Drew's charisma, James Wood as her cop father, Lorraine Bracco as the mother, Brittany Murphy as her best friend, the quality New Jersey/New York locations (note the ending), the realistic struggle of living with an alcoholic/addict, the heaviness of the proceedings lightened up by sporadic humor and the focus on perseverance with a good attitude to turn a negative situation around to the positive.
Sara Gilbert plays a peripheral character, a friend of Beverly's, revealing that she's actually attractive in a roundish (not fat) way. Adam Garcia is notable as Beverly's adult son.
The film runs 132 minutes.
GRADE: B-