Parts about Brittany are bolded, in case you just want to scroll to that.

Desmond's Girl fills us in about RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS!!!

Hey folks, Harry here and man... this one just doesn't sound like it is for me... but maybe that's a genetic plus! Yippee!!!! Here ya go, I'll let Desmond's Girl tell ya bout it alll

Hey Harry,

I'm a longtime reader of your site, and one thing I've always liked is the democratic idea that any movie-lovin' chick off the street can add her two cents when she gets the chance. So here's mine. Saw the new Drew Barrymore-starring, Penny Marshall-directing flick "Riding in Cars With Boys" at a media preview today, and ... I must say I was highly disappointed.

Don't get me wrong - the flick is good enough, totally watchable, even special by some suburban-strip-mall standards, but it doesn't scratch the surface of what was a complex, often harsh literary exploration of teen motherhood. It doesn't even resemble the cheeky, hug-your-best-friend trailers they're showing. It doesn't know what it wants to be.

For starters, they need to kill the narration provided by Adam Garcia, who plays Drew's son. The movie's all about her, and we never get a good feel for his character. Not only that, but they had to go and cast someone older than Ms. Barrymore to play her son! What, there were no talented *actual* 20-year-olds available?! And for anyone who's courageous enough to admit they saw "Coyote Ugly", Mr. Garcia has infinitely more charm there. And he wasn't forced to awkwardly assume an American accent, as Marshall requests.

The plot is told in a series of awkward flashbacks, which are probably not from the mind of Jason (Adam Garcia), since he has yet to be born while his mom Beverly (Drew B.) runs around her Connecticut hometown flirting, learning, and generally being sassy. Why, why do all these CT residents talk like they're from Brooklyn? It's 'cause they're played by Lorraine Bracco, James Woods, Vinny Pastore, and other skilled Sopranos-style refugees. O-kay... nice casting choices, but ...

Everything picks up when Steve Zahn walks in as Ray Hasek, the unlucky fellow who's unabashed about his dead end life, but who takes a minute to impregnate Beverly and trap her in her own personal hell. Zahn makes a real impression here, since he could have chosen to mug up a storm as a wacky wannabe-junkie-dad, but instead opts for subtlety (until we encounter him as a 40-year-old at the film's denoument, in which case all bets are off). Truly, for most of the wacky encounters that Marshall stitches together into a meaningful snapshot, Zahn is the only watchable actor. Drew Barrymore tries her hardest, she really does, but I believed her more as a tomboyish super-secret-agent who makes Shake-n-Bake in mansions.

Also of note: Brittany Murphy really grows up here. She's a little cartoonish in her confused-teen excess, but I left the film wishing it was about Faye the best friend instead of Beverly, and that's a credit to Murphy. Give this girl a movie to carry and watch her beat the #@$@$@ out of Julia Stiles, Kate Beckinsale, etc.

On the whole, "Riding..." rides the rollercoaster of a mediocre script and scattershot focus on the part of Marshall. Is she telling us that Beverly made the right choices in her life, or that she frittered it away? Was she a good mother or a bitch, a heroine or a pitiable nobody? Nothing is too subtle, so we can't be meant to leave the theater still pondering. My words to my date as we left: "They have 5 days to recut this and make it end when Steve Zahn leaves." My date's words: "Now I REALLY don't want to have kids." You can call me DESMOND'S GIRL, because even though NYC-born actor Desmond Harrington is only onscreen for a few minutes, as Murphy's boy toy, DANG is he a hot one.