Goals put on hold in 'Riding in Cars With Boys'

"It feels weird, but wait 'til he sticks his tongue in your mouth."
   Beverly dispenses that advice as she and her childhood friend practice kissing their own hands at the beginning of "Riding in Cars With Boys," a film about reluctant growth into adulthood that hits the mark more than it misses.
   If only learning how to love was as easy as learning how to kiss. Beverly (Drew Barrymore) grows quickly from an innocent toddler into a boy-crazy 15-year-old in 1968, when she surprises herself and her overprotective parents by getting pregnant with dense boyfriend Raymond (Steve Zahn). Beverly has plans to move to New York City and become a writer, but because neither Raymond nor the baby are pencilled into those plans, she puts her dreams on the backburner and marries Raymond to appease her parents.
   A typical first-time parent, if there is such a thing, Beverly makes her share of mistakes but attempts to claw her way back to her pre-childbearing plans of writing and college.
   But during moments of weakness as a 20-year-old parent of a 5-year-old, she flops and flails in her own inexperience.
   The story is told in flashbacks as an older Beverly rides in a car with one of the boys alluded to in the title. She has written an autobiographical book, and the flashbacks come quite naturally with the assistance of the book as a reference point and the insightful dialogue. When a 19-ish Beverly questions her love for her son, her best friend Fay replies: "Sometimes we love people so much we have to be numb to it."
   The writing is sensible and real - not always what escapist moviegoers are looking for, but quality nevertheless.
   In fact Barrymore gives a handsome performance that matches the script blow by blow through the bitter end - in which both the ending and Barrymore's performance are bitter and schmaltzy.
  
  

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