(rated PG-13, 122 mins.)
Based on a true story and directed by the usually fantastic Penny “Big” Marshall, a single mother, Beverly (Drew Barrymore), has dreams of becoming a writer that get shattered when she has a son (from riding in cars with boys) at the young age of 15 in 1968. Her best friend Fay (Brittany Murphy) gets pregnant too but takes a different path. Her father (James Wood) is the town police officer trying to bail her out of not so much jail but the bad life. And so the story goes and never seems to end of this young mom whose box office tag line is misguided as “the story of a girl who did everything wrong but did everything right.” If the audience knows anything of raising children, they’ll recognize that the son Jason, (Adam Garcia), that Beverly raises is what keeps therapists in business during our adult lives. Eventually Beverly writes a story that includes growing up to fast, missed opportunities and her years with Raymond (Steve Zahn), Jason’s father, in hopes of getting published. While this is the first time Barrymore ever impressed me, the audience will find themselves often annoyed with her mothering skills. Of course any emotion, including annoyance translates to the actor pulling off the role. But the negative messages from bra stuffing to sidetracked morals and getting pregnant send sour waves through us wondering why these unsympathetic girls even hooked up with these boys in the first place. “Riding In Cars With Boys” gets a flat tire somewhere in the middle act. It’s like a bad “Terms of Endearment” without the illness. Maybe the cancer would have helped.
