This was the perfect vehicle for Drew Barrymore, who with her looks was able to play a role ranging from a teenager to a mature woman. Her main strength was playing the role of the young struggling mother with great conviction, while her performance as a teenage was a little annoying (a real teenager would have given it more conviction). As the young mother with a late teenage son, she was a little aloof. I'm not sure if that was meant to be her character, but it didn't seem right after giving it plenty of heart and soul in the earlier scenes as the very young mother.The real stars where the child actors, specially the young Beverly who was hilarious in the bra scene with her father the police office (played to perfection by James Wood). The young Jason was another standout and it saved the film, as did Steve Zahn, who gave a heartfelt performance and supplied the humour.Penny Marshall seemed to handle the subject well, sometimes just taking a little dip into the Soap Opera territory, but then able to pull back in time, allowing us to to take a ride through Beverly D'Onofrio's interesting passage in life.

I think "Riding in Cars with Boys" is a movie that offers a few life lessons for teenagers. It takes guts to keep a child when you have a life full of promises and perspectives, but Beverly gave up to all those things in order to have a baby, a son, and offer him a chance to education. At first I didn't know what this movie is all about, I thought it's about cars and races, myself being a fan of Nascar and F1, I actually have a Romanian website that teaches teens how to drive http://www.odat.ro Anyway, I'm a huge fan of Drew Barrymore and Steve Zahn so even though it's not a movie about cars, it surely worths watching, especially since it's based on a true story.

"Riding in Cars with Boys" illustrates the challenges unplanned teenage pregnancies pose. "Laverne & Shirley" comedian Penny Marshall, whose credits include "A League of Their Own" and "Awakenings," pulls no punches in this sappy but unglamorous big-screen adaptation of real-life protagonist Beverly Donofrio's autobiography. Told largely in flashbacks, this cautionary yarn paints a bleak but rewarding picture about Donofrio's struggle raising a son with an undependable dad. When she learns about her husband's addiction to heroin, Donofrio kicks him out and raises her son alone. Not only does she take menial low-paying jobs, but also she sacrifices her dreams about college. Hollywood hellion Drew Barrymore of "Charlie's Angels" fame knows something about life's hard knocks from her highly publicized substance abuse problems, so she makes a believable single mom. Clocking in at well over two hours, "Riding in Cars with Boys" blends comedy with tragedy and features a first-rate cast including Rosie Perez, Brittany Murphy, and "Sopranos" star Lorraine Bracco. Indeed, this down-to-earth, realistic tearjerker should serve as required viewing for lusty high schoolers whose obsession with sex fails to factor in small town New England the consequences when a booty call backfires.Drew Barrymore plays the disaster-prone oldest daughter of strait-laced police chief Leo Donofrio (James Woods of "Once Upon a Time in America") growing up in small town New England in the turbulent 1960s. Young Beverly displays a knack for writing poetry. After school one evening, best friend Fay (Brittany Murphy of "Don't Say A Word") and she crash a "Can't Hardly Wait" house party. Starry-eyed Beverly reads a poem she penned for an egotistical football athlete she has a crush on. Callously, the stereotypical letter-jacket jock lambastes her literary efforts. A grief-stricken Beverly locks herself in an upstairs bathroom, only to find herself confined with lovable low-life Raymond Hasek (Steve Zahn of "Joyride"). Eventually, not only do they hit it off as friends, but also they become lovers. Ray gets fifteen-year old Beverly pregnant, and a shotgun marriage follows. Well-meaning but infantile, Ray isn't fit for fatherhood. Foolishly, he gets hooked on heroin, and Beverly divorces him. Our sympathetic heroine doesn't fare much better as a single mom. She blames all her failures on her son. As Jason gets older, he takes care of her. Beverly and Jason (Adam Garcia of "Coyote Ugly") are driving out-of-town to visit Ray, who has since remarried, when the film opens with a flashback. Although Beverly has written a memoir about her misadventures, her publisher wants her to obtain a signed release from Ray before the book can be printed.Marshall and writer Morgan Upton Ward refuse to sugarcoat this ambitious but downbeat PG-13 saga about the perils of teen parenthood. The wedding scene when Beverly's embarrassed father thanks his friends for showing up is a classic bittersweet moment. Although the pace becomes sluggish and uneven, with characters drifting in and out of the story, the message about unplanned pregnancies loses none of its impact. Altogether, "Riding in Cars with Boys" qualifies as a must-see movie for parents, teenagers, and high school guidance counselors.

I watched this movie last night, expecting to watch an empowering movie about a strong woman. What I got was a story about an overbearing, rigid mom who makes stupid decisions and winds up in bad situations, but her predicaments are her own fault, despite a pesky conscience and caring parents. She even tells her son (not once but several times, mind you) that he ruined her life- nice parenting! Penny Marshall could have done a better job with the way she portrayed Beverly D'Onofrio (played by Drew Barrymore).What a disappointment! Not one person dies in this movie, which says a lot about how depressing this movie really is because I didn't think that a movie without a body count could be so depressing. This was neither uplifting nor empowering.On the plus side, the acting was really good. Even Lorraine Bracco, who plays D'Onofrio's mother, was good in this film, and I usually can't stand her. But even the brilliant performances by the actors couldn't save this film.