I wish I could write my own biography. Then I could tell everyone about how cool I am, and a few years later, I would have them make a movie about me, maybe starring Catherine Zeta-Jones or Julia Roberts. I would write about how I am almost perfect (with just a few flaws to make it look realistic, but cute, forgivable flaws) and I would make everyone else except my best friend and my kid look like jerks (just to stress the fact that I am perfect). And thus would I talk about how I overcame all of my trials and tribulations with a cute little kid in tow.
Beverley Donofrio does something similar to that in the movie Riding in Cars with Boys, which she co-produced. In the movie, Beverley, played by Drew Barrymore, is a 15-year-old girl who becomes pregnant and has to marry her drug addict boyfriend Ray (Steve Zahn). However, even in the face of a great obstacle (that is, her son) she is able to eventually fulfill her dream of publishing a book.
Donofrio’s influence is very marked in the movie. She villainizes everyone who ever crossed her, especially her father, who is presented as the most traditional man who ever lived. Donofrio knew, even though the movie is set in the sixties, that we would interpret her father’s desire that she get married to the father of her child within our modern framework, and she plays this up in every way possible. I was a dutiful audience member and was horrified when her parents made her get married. But I started to get suspicious when her dad thanked everyone for coming to the wedding even though his daughter was a slut and actually became pregnant out of the holy sanctity of matrimony. Do they really play “The Lady is a Tramp” at weddings? Theme of the movie: people who believed the sexist framework of the sixties are bad people.
Donofrio, on the other hand, is portrayed as some sort of angel. In the autobiography, Beverley is 17 when she has the child, but in the movie her age is changed to 15. This can be explained by no other reason than a desire to increase sympathy. Then, you are supposed to feel bad for her because has to marry a dumb guy, even though she isn’t actually coerced to marry her child’s father. Finally, you are supposed to be amazed that she manages to complete her education, even though her mother comes over every day to clean for her. You might feel sorry for her, but you really shouldn’t.
The movie is okay, and the slew of kids that play Jason, Beverley’s son, are so cute. In fact, there is a 10 minute segment of the film without dialogue, devoted to showing exactly how cute Jason is. He plays, he smiles, and he pees. Your heart goes out to him. You almost feel bad that his mom wants to pursue her own life, which, according to the movie, compromises Jason’s childhood.
Drew Barrymore is a really bad actress. She always has a smirk on her face, and her emotional range reflects that. Plus, it is impossible to imagine her as the smartest girl in school, even if she did use big words like “attentive” and “responsible” correctly. Barrymore did not inherit her ancestors’ famed ability to act, but she is really cute. I love watching her bounce around the screen, doing crazy things and having fun.
The only character that really made the movie at all interesting is Ray. A scene can’t be bad as long as Steve Zahn is in it. I laugh constantly when he is on the screen. He plays the same character he played in Suburbia. How can he be so weird? Is he always on drugs? Can it be possible that he is like that off-screen? Ray runs around like a chicken with his head cut off, only half understanding that he is in a movie. There’s no way the real Ray came up with the line,“I’ll love you ‘til the dead, until the die, until I die.”
This is not a good movie, but for some reason I got really caught up in it. The movie would have been infinitely better if it was not framed by the story of when Beverley got the book published, which involved a long car ride and way too much talking. Maybe they added the frame to hide the fact that the real action of the movie doesn’t even have an ending. And endings are usually good.