Riding In Cars With Boys

This strained, artificially sweetened adaptation of Beverly Donofrio’s autobiography is an uneven drama about parent-sibling relationships, self-absorption, young love and shattered dreams that injects a TV sitcom sensibility into nearly every crucial conflict and personal challenge. Drew Barrymore stars as the daughter of a Connecticut cop (James Woods) and housewife (Lorraine Bracco) who gets pregnant at the age of 15 and wallows in a low-rent marriage to a dumb junkie (Steve Zahn) as her dreams of becoming a writer fade. The film is split between scenes of her past and those involving a road trip with her young-adult son (Adam Garcia) whose life has been tainted by his mom’s prevailing misery. Directed by Penny Marshall (A League of Their Own).