Beverly D?Onofrio (Drew Barrymore, “Never Been Kissed”) is the kind of daughter that keeps fathers up at night with worry.
Boy crazy in grade school, she shatters her little girl image by asking her father for a bra for Christmas so she can show off her stuff to win over a crush. Later on in high school, he catches his beloved daughter doing some post make-out drinking in a car. She even tries to make it better by telling him not to worry because she never goes past second base with someone she just met. Which, she tells her father with a straight face, means nothing below the waist. “Mine, not his.”
The new comedy-drama “Riding In Cars With Boys” follows Beverly through her trials and tribulations. At 15, Beverly gets pregnant. Beverly?s parents encourage her to marry her child?s father, Ray (Steve Zahn, “Joy Ride”) and move to suburban Connecticut. Beverly has big dreams of going to college and being a writer, but with a husband and child, she has to postpone her dreams to make ends meet.
And she never lets them forget it. In fact, Beverly spends most of her life letting her son Jason (Adam Garcia) know he was, and is, in the way. Beverly would rather spend time gossiping with her best friend than watching her son. She doesn?t want to change Jason?s diaper when he is a baby, she doesn?t buy groceries when he is in grade school and she controls his life while he is in college. Beverly is a terrible mother.
Fortunately for her, Beverly?s poor parenting skills are shown-up by her husband. Ray is a deadbeat dad and loser husband who eventually leaves to pursue a full-time heroin habit. He blinks and laughs and shakes his head so well, you could believe that he really is a moron.
Barrymore is a charming actress, and she does well in funny movies with witty dialogue, but something is amiss in “Riding in Cars With Boys.” Barrymore, who has her own wild past as a starting point for her character, plays Beverly throughout her life from 15 to 35 — an age range of twenty years. But at 26 years old, Barrymore is too old to play a 15-year-old and make it believable.
Some of the best one-liners and moments of comedic relief in the movie are given to Jason as he is growing up. Sitting in the bathroom waiting for his mother to get ready, he is sprayed in the face by her hairspray, a scene that hits home to any viewer who got sprayed in the face by a mom?s 80s hairspray. In another scene, Jason tells Beverly she looks pretty, which adds to the warmth of the picture as a whole.
This true comedy does have a couple inadvertent lessons. It first shows the complex love-hate relationship that all men have with their mothers. It then moves beyond that and shows the lasting relationship that children have with their parents. A love for one?s parents and one?s child are unconditional. Through ups and downs, this love endures. Through its warmth and weaknesses, the lessons “Riding In Cars With Boys” endure and make for a quality picture as a whole.
Grade: B
