Riding in Cars with Boys *** (2001, Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Adam Garcia) – Classic Movie Review 1862

Director Penny Marshall’s poignant 2001 comedy drama stars Drew Barrymore on storming form as real-life Beverly D’Onofrio, who comes of age in the late Sixties, and has her entire life coloured by an event that happens when she’s only 15 – she becomes pregnant with her nice, ordinary boyfriend, played by Steve Zahn.

The main problems are the movie’s epic over-length at 132 minutes and the unconvincing switching back and forth through time. Excellent though she is, Barrymore can’t quite convince that she’s either 15 or 35, particularly with a mid-20s Adam Garcia playing her son Jason (and the film’s narrator) and looking older than her. James Woods is his good, old self, but he’s not particularly well cast either. He just doesn’t seem right playing anyone’s grandpa. He doesn’t seem grandpa material.

When Barrymore chucks out the ultra-nice Zahn because he’s a drug-user (this is the late-60s), her character suddenly loses sympathy and appeal – oddly so, because this must have been the right thing to do at the time. And when, much later, she looks up Zahn to get his clearance for the book she’s written about them, sympathy swings to Zahn again. And the woman Zahn is now living with is portrayed by Rosie Perez as a grasping, greedy bitch, which might be true, but appears unsubtle. Also the real-life nature of the story makes it dramatically unwieldy and sometimes unsatisfying.

Still, many touching, convincing moments and well-written scenes remain on the menu of this poignant and interesting comedy drama. The young versions of Jason are sweetly played by Cody Arens (at 6) and Logan Arens (age 3).

Brittany Murphy, Lorraine Bracco, Desmond Harrington, David Moscow, Sara Gilbert, Maggie Gyllenhall, Peter Facinelli and Vincent Pastore co-star. Morgan Ward wrote the screenplay from Beverly D’Onofrio‘s book.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1862

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/