Écarts de conduite

I'm a Chinese staying and traveling in U.S. Four years ago, I lived in Enterprise, Alabama for 7 months, and befriended with many "southerners". I know how a lot of ordinary Americans feel when they struggle in their lives every day -- sad, lost, and almost desperate. This is a country full of freedom and opportunities. But in reality, one bad move in this system usually is enough to ruin a person's life, leaving no way for coming back. Being knocked up in high school, dropping out, drug, drinking, gun, bad credit,lawsuits.... This is the side of U.S not mentioned often enough on TV or movies, and is real. I loved this movie and would like to see it again when I get a chance. 8 out of 10. Also recommend another loosely similar movie from France: "Dream Life of the Angels", with more remarkable performances and a more shocking story.

While not belaboring this entire string of comments, I was glad that a couple of people have already mentioned about getting the truth from the book, as opposed to this movie.

The movie itself is excellent and will keep you glued to your seat. Drew Barrymore did a phenomenal job in her portrayal of Beverly Donofrio, as Beverly is depicted in the film meaning how the storyline was written - and it is definitely a story, but an enjoyable one nevertheless.

I could barely find any similarities however between what took place in the movie and what actually happened to Beverly in real life. Had they produced the movie as the book was written, it would have been a much more intense drama with tons of sex, drugs and rock and roll, literally. Beverly Donofrio as depicted in the movie is nothing short of a Miss Goody Two Shoes compared to how Beverly actually was. But had the producers gone this route, it would have been very depressing to see.

Beverly knows more than others how your life can change direction with one simple action. She had dreams of becoming a writer as a child but when she got pregnant at 15 all of that changed and she found herself married and living in a cheap house raising a son while trying to study for her exams. This is the start of her struggles where her husband never aspires beyond his next beer and she struggles with responsibility towards her son Jason. Years later, riding with her adult son on a trip, she thinks back over her years.

The title and trailer pretty much let me know that this was aimed at a certain demographic that I am not part of, but I decided to give it a go anyway. The plot is a tapestry of moments across Beverly's life from her dreams to middle age; it is a mix of the comic and the tragic and it doesn't sit that well. Penny Marshall seems to want the comedy to come out – even when it is not appropriate (for example Beverly allowing Jason to continue drowning for comedy effect) and this sits very uneasily with the more dramatic character side of the film. In fact the more serious (and interesting) aspects are mostly badly handled and fall a bit flat. In particular Marshall cannot cope very well with the fact that her lead character is a deeply flawed person that the audience easily dislike at times; the film gets close to examining this at the end but, typically, chickens out big time. The story is mainly quite dull then and the moments that are meant to be funny just seem strangely out of place.

The cast don't help at all. Barrymore is serviceable but can't get to the heart of her character. OK, she isn't helped by the material but she swings wildly from playing "silly" at one moment to overdoing the histrionics. Zahn is not the first choice you want for a film with a story; he goofs well enough but finding depth is not really his forte and he adds to the shallow feel of the main story. Gilbert is hardly in it but Murphy is actually quite good, but then the material doesn't really ask much of it anyway. Woods and Bracco add familiar faces but really nothing else, in tiny roles. Perez plays a money grabber in a small role and made me wonder if she goes out of her way to find such characters? A minor thing that got to me as well was the fact that this is meant to play over years and years but mostly, nobody ages convincingly: apart from costume and hairstyle Barrymore looks the same at the start and the end of the story and this pretty much goes for everyone. A minor quibble but it bothered me.

Overall this is an average and uneven film. The story is interesting because it features such a flawed lead character and could have been interesting but it is roundly mishandled. The comic moments sit uneasily with the story as a whole, but Marshall seems happier with these touches than actually delivering the drama goods. The cast match her approach and their performances vary wildly depending if the scene they are shooting that day was a "happy scene", "sad scene" or "angry scene". Target audience might like it but it is far too flawed to have wider appeal.

I put off watching this for a long while, until well after its release on video, because of the very mixed reviews it got and the perception that the content was drab and potentially preachy. Well I was wrong. This is an excellent movie, well worth the expenditure of two hours of anyone's time (well... unless maybe you've only got 24 hours to live, or something). Although the subject matter may sound dour, and certainly does deal with "kitchen sink" issues which can strangle the human spirit without even allowing it the luxury of looking heroic as it succumbs... still the film is about life, not about defeat, and the characters never lose an inner spark and humanity which makes us care about them, and like, or even love them by the time the movie finishes. It's funny and moving... and in a way which seems to have more to do with the way life is funny and moving than with movie conventions.

Riding in Cars with Boys is definitely a step into a new direction for actress Drew Barrymore. Drew, in her most difficult role to date, tries and succeeds through the majority of the movie. There are times when she goes a little out of bounds, and becomes outrageous -- but for the most part, she nails the part.

The film tells its story nicely, and has a strange and some-what heartbreaking ending. Steve Zahn is easily the high-point of this film. Zahn's character will be the one you think about the most when this film ends.

Riding in Cars with Boys works on enough levels to make it worth seeing.