COLUMN: ‘Riding in Cars’ a forced drive
It might have been a mistake to cast Drew Barrymore for the lead role in this film. Riding in Cars with Boys was advertised as a lighthearted coming of age feel-good flick. Her inclusion only seemed to reinforce that assumption. Audiences expected a story about a woman who makes a few mistakes, fumbles through a series of not-so-serious mishaps and ends up discovering both herself and real happiness in the end. And since we’ve seen Barrymore play this to perfection a dozen times before, most folks expected a repeat.
Not this time. Although the movie spends the majority of its time exploring the consequences of teenage folly, it does so without making much of an attempt to resolve the story in the tidy, feel-good style we have come to expect from Hollywood. For this, I have to give the film’s creators some much-deserved credit. In this regard, at least, they tried to remain true to the story.
Riding in Cars with Boys is based on the memoirs of Beverly Donofrio, a working-class policeman’s daughter who lives in middle-class Connecticut neighborhood. She discovers her passion for literature at an early age and dreams of some day moving to New York to pursue an education in writing. At the age of 15, she discovers she has another passion – boys. And when Ray Hasek comes charging to her rescue during an uncomfortable moment at a party, she finds herself not riding, but parking in a car with him.
Naturally, she ends up getting pregnant and having to face the grim prospect of a life which will require her to be a wife and mother at the age of 16. The marriage doesn’t take long to fall apart as both Beverly and Ray find themselves hopelessly outmatched by a reality they are ill-prepared for. Beverly resents both Ray and her newborn son, Jason, for interfering with her plans for fame and fortune. Ray’s addiction to drugs and alcohol leave him unable to take care of himself, much less his wife and child.
Despite its discouraging content, it’s hard not to find something to like about a story which plays its cards so honestly. Most of us have friends who may have ended up, to some degree, casualties of their own teenage mistakes. And like Beverly and Ray, they probably emerged a little wiser and certainly damaged from their experience. Few people who find themselves in this situation end up riding away happily into the proverbial sunset. So why should we expect it from the movie?
Although the story told in the movie is heavily edited, it maintains enough integrity it can’t simply be dismissed as a total rewrite of the original. Riding in Cars with Boys will be enjoyable to those who don’t necessarily need a rainbow at the end of a cloudy day.
Grade B+