RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS

Year: 2001
USA: Columbia Pictures
UK: Columbia Tristar
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, Adam Garcia, James Woods, Lorraine Bracco, Sara Gilbert, Mika Boorem, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Vincent Pastore, Rosie Perez, Peter Facinelli, Emily Bauer, Carl Capotorto, Marisa Ryan, Patrick Salerno, Tracy Reiner, Gabriel Carpenter, John DeGrazio, Alissa Dean, Jon Korkes Jordan Gelber, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Desmond Harrington, Heather Hodder, Shannon Hodges, Richard P Keith, Aleksia Landeau, Sophia Barricelli, Dusty Rizzo, Todd Wall, Marilyn Spanier Kevin Thoms, Cody Arens, Logan Lerman, Logan Arens, Samantha Lucier
Director: Penny Marshall
Country: USA
USA: 132 mins
UK: 131mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for thematic elements, drug and sexual content
UK Certificate: 12 contains moderate sex and drug references
USA Release Date: 19 October 2001
UK Release Date: 7 December 2001


Synopsis

"One day can make your life; one day can ruin your life. All life is is four or five big days that change everything." - Beverly Donofrio

Based on the book by Beverly Donofrio, the comedy-drama RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS is the fresh, funny, touching and unbelievably true story of writer Beverly Donofrio (played by Drew Barrymore, who ages from 15 to 35 in the role), who comes of age in the late 1960s and has her entire life colored by an event that happens when she is 15 years old. Directed by Penny Marshall in her first collaboration with Academy Award®-winning director/producer Jim Brooks since the smash hit BIG, the story spans over 20 years as it reveals this unlikely heroine's often humorous, occasionally irreverent, always unique personal journey to make something of herself.

It's 1965, and Bev (Barrymore) is a bright and gifted girl whose dream is to one day move to New York City and become a writer. But as a teenager in working-class Wallingford, Connecticut, the daughter of a cop and a homemaker, reading Shakespeare and one too many romance novels is the closest it seems she'll get. Her talent for writing has drawn praise from her teachers and helped fuel her ambition to go to college, but she is also a typical teen-sassy, funny, mercurial, rebellious... boy-crazy.

She meets Ray Hasek (Steve Zahn), a tough, not-too-bright 18-year-old dropout, at a party. Rejected by the boy she has a crush on, Bev turns to Ray, who is instantly taken with her, only to be stunned by an unintended and unexpected pregnancy months later.

Now she faces the nightmare of telling her parents. In a "nice" family in a place like Wallingford, unwed motherhood was definitely not embraced. Bev's suggestion that she keep the child and finish high school is thwarted by her stern father (James Woods) and heartbroken mother (Lorraine Bracco). She quits school and agrees to marry Ray to keep family peace.

With her new husband working as an air conditioning installer and a carpet layer, and the birth of a baby boy (not her hoped for daughter), Bev is still determined to get her high school diploma and go on to college. But six years into the marriage, she discovers that her husband is a drug addict. He's spent all the money she has worked so hard to save for college. The marriage dissolves and Ray disappears from her life. Suddenly a single mom with no real career prospects, Bev faces a daunting question: Now what?