I remember back when I saw the commercials announcing that this was coming to theaters. I didn't think much of it. All I heard was "featuring Drew Barrymore", and then I decided I didn't want to spend money on a movie ticket to see her in a leading role, since I hadn't(and still haven't) seen an impressive performance by her. Then, for the last week or so, I began seeing commercials for its airing on TV. At first, I couldn't for the life of me tell the commercials apart from those advertising Home Fries(pregnant Barrymore, dimwitted father, etc). Still, I decided to give it a chance. I think I held out about half an hour, and then the film simply got too boring for me. The plot is good enough, and it develops nicely. The pacing is worse. What really tears this apart is the characters. Beverly comes off as a self-absorbed, pretentious, stubborn woman with the mind of a little girl. It's heavily hinted at that she's very intelligent and an excellent writer(which I understand the real Beverly was), but we are never convinced of this. Barrymore does an awful job of bringing her character to life; I never cared in the least about what happened to her(which may be part of why I only watched with half an eye after the first half hour). James Woods is terribly miscast. Brittany Murphy does a fair job of her character, but she's given far too little to work with. Steve Zahn does a good job, considering this is the first even slightly dramatic role I've seen him in(I don't know if he's actually done any other drama). On the outside, the film looks like it's about Beverly's relationships with men; when you look a little deeper, you'll see it's about choices and consequences. The problem is, it doesn't seem like it. I never felt like Beverly made the wrong choice. I felt like she just had problems, and blamed them on her unwanted son. Obviously, this is not what the director meant... but either she was unable to communicate her point properly, or Barrymore just lacks the capacity to play anything other than an airhead. I'm almost entirely certain that the book is far, far better, but I probably won't read it. After seeing such an embarrassing attempt at bringing it to the silver screen, I doubt I would be able to read it unbiased. Whether this movie was ruined by director Penny Marshal's inability to create something solid or Drew Barrymore's poor acting performance, I'm not sure. But the fact of the matter is, it is ruined. It is just not a very good movie, no matter how you look at it. If you're reading this and you're interested in the story, go read the book. Stay away from this movie. If you've read it and enjoyed it, stay even further away. From what I hear, it's wildly inaccurate. I recommend this only to very big fans of the actors in it. Everyone else: This is not worth your time. 6/10
Review of Riding in Cars with Boys
