| Riding in Cars with Boys | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Penny Marshall |
| Produced by | Julie Ansell James L. Brooks Sara Colleton Laurence Mark Richard Sakai |
| Screenplay by | Morgan Ward |
| Based on | Riding in Cars with Boys by Beverly Donofrio |
| Starring | Drew Barrymore Steve Zahn Brittany Murphy James Woods Lorraine Bracco Sara Gilbert Vincent Pastore |
| Music by | Heitor Pereira Hans Zimmer |
| Cinematography | Miroslav Ondrícek |
| Editing by | Lawrence Jordan Richard Marks |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 19, 2001 |
| Running time | 132 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $48 million |
| Box office | $35,743,308 |
Riding in Cars with Boys is a 2001 film based on the autobiography of the same name by Beverly Donofrio, about a woman who overcame difficulties including being a teen mother to earning a master's degree from the span of 1961 to 1986. It stars Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, and James Woods. It was directed by Penny Marshall and co-produced by Beverly Donofrio herself, though many details from the book and film differ.
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Intelligent but naive Beverly Donofrio (Drew Barrymore), a teenager when the movie begins in the early 1960s, dreams of becoming a writer. At 15, she and her best friend Fay (Brittany Murphy), go to a party and get drunk. Beverly ends up having sex with a friendly stranger named Ray (Steve Zahn). She finds out she is pregnant and contemplates having an abortion, but cannot bring herself to do so. Ray feels it would be right to propose to Beverly and professes his love for her, she reluctantly replies the same. At her wedding, Fay announces she is also pregnant and the two girls, although upset, celebrate the fact they will both have little girls together.
As the months go by, the girls realize they are missing out on life, like prom and an education. Beverly and Ray welcome a son named Jason, however, when he is born, Beverly refuses to hold him saying she had a girl, not a boy, and when Ray tells her they have a son, she bursts into tears. Beverly is jealous that she had a boy and Fay got to have a baby girl, Amelia. However, Fay's husband soon leaves her. Beverly kicks Ray out after he spends all their money on drugs. Jason (Logan Lerman) hates his mother for making Ray leave and Beverly blames Jason for the way her life has turned out.
Beverly and Fay soon turn to selling pot in order to make money. Jason (who is still mad at his mother) knows what they are doing and tells his grandfather (James Woods), who is a cop, and he arrests them. Fay's family bails the girls out under the condition that Fay moves away with her brother and Amelia promising to not see Beverly again.
In the present day, Beverly and Jason (Adam Garcia) are driving to visit Ray to allow his permission to release her novel, which talks about his drug use. Ray and Jason share a moment where Ray knew the best thing for his son was to leave and Jason knows his mom did the right thing as Ray is still an addict and living in a trailer. Ray signs the papers. Jason is also in a relationship with Amelia (Maggie Gyllenhaal). However, Beverly doesn't know, and after a confrontation with his mother in which Jason says that she ruined his life, she finally admits how proud she is of him and tells him to go to Amelia, leaving her in the middle of nowhere saying she wants him to be happy. It is implied that Fay and Beverly are still best friends, as she remarks she can't believe Fay didn't tell her that Jason and Amelia were in a relationship. In the middle of nowhere, Beverly is forced to call her father, with whom she has a very strained relationship, and the two reconcile.
Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "A film like this is refreshing and startling in the way it cuts loose from formula and shows us confused lives we recognize ... This movie is closer to the truth: A lot depends on what happens to you, and then a lot depends on how you let it affect you".[1] In his review for The New York Times, Stephen Holden praised Steve Zahn's performance: "It is hard to imagine what Riding in Cars With Boys would have been without Mr. Zahn's brilliantly nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of Ray, who goes through more changes than Beverly".[2] USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and found that the "strength of the movie lies in these performances and in the situational humor, though ultimately the ending is disappointing, attempting to wrap up loose ends far too neatly".[3]
Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C+" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote, "Which is to say, every scene is bumpered with actorly business and production detail that says more about nostalgia for the pop culture of earlier American decades than about the hard socioeconomic truths of being a poor, young, undereducated parent".[4] In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley criticized Drew Barrymore's performance: "Barrymore, a delightful comic actress, has the spunk for the role but can't do justice to the complexities of Beverly's conflicted personality. So she comes off as abrasive and neglectful as opposed to headstrong and ambitious, winning no empathy for this sour single mom".[5] Edward Guthmann also had problems with Barrymore's performance in his review for the San Francisco Chronicle: "She never relaxes, never surrenders to the character, but instead tries to justify her and to make us like her despite her selfishness and poor mothering. American actors as a rule are terrified of playing unsympathetic characters, particularly when they've gained the celebrity and box-office appeal that Barrymore has".[6] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan criticized the film's direction: "At home with the comedy, even if it is too broad, the director brings next to nothing to the serious scenes; they simply sit there on the screen, empty and forlorn".[7]
The film opened at #2 at the U.S. Box office raking in $10,404,652 USD in its opening weekend, behind From Hell.
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