Riding in Cars with Boys (Special Edition)

Buy This Item Riding in Cars with Boys (Special Edition) by Sony Pictures  Available from Amazon  $9.95  on 8-30-2008     <I>Riding in Cars with Boys</I> achieves broad appeal as a tearjerker laced with hardscrabble humor. In the crowd-pleasing hands of director Penny Marshall, Beverly Donofrio's bestselling memoir loses much of its real-life gravity, but its rich humanity remains in abundance, especially since Drew Barrymore plays Donofrio with effortless charm. The movie spans 20 years, from Bev's pregnancy at 15 in 1963 (actually 17 in the book), through welfare parenthood with a heroin-addicted husband (Steve Zahn), and semi-adult resentment as her teenaged son (Adam Garcia) takes priority over her ultimate goal of finishing college and publishing her memoir. For all of Barrymore's winning tenacity, it's Zahn's goodhearted loser who gives the film its genuine soul while lending an edge to Marshall's cloying sentiment. The material begs for the subtler touch of James L. Brooks (who produced this and Marshall's more delicate hit <I>Big</I>), but that won't stop this movie from attracting a legion of admirers. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I> Reader Reviews I didn't plan on watching this, but it turned out to be one of those slow evenings and quite frankly there was nothing else on. To my surprise I found myself drawn into the story. Mainly because our heroine, Bev, was certainly a flawed character and was unable to see her contribution to the direction her life took. Though I was a little confused in the begining to how old she was. Not until it was revealed that she was riding with her son and not a boyfriend did the clouds finally part-though it was pretty laughable given Drew Barrymore didn't even look twenty-five herself next to her "son". However, for the most part, this film was interesting but I'm unclear the point of this journey. When Bev gives the speech about how her son saved her, I'm not sure I believed her or believed that she believed it. When did this revealation occur to her? And when she whines to her father in the car, it's clear to me that even then she doesn't believe that she screwed up her son's life. But overall, it's a descent story-especially if there's nothing else on.

Riding in Cars with Boys (Special Edition) Available from Amazon Price: $9.95 Updated on 8-30-2008.

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