At 15, Bev (Barrymore) gets pregnant, weds the baby's father, drops out of high school and begins wallowing in that most ignoble of human emotions, self-pity. "My life is over," she moans. Riding in Cars with Boys intends to prove otherwise. But the story that follows is as confused and contradictory as its moody teenage heroine.
The movie is based on author Beverly Donofrio's affecting 1990 memoir of the same title, which mapped her hardscrabble journey from working-class teen mother in Wallingford, Conn., to fledgling writer in Manhattan. The book told the inspiring story of how a determined Donofrio raised her son alone while still managing to earn a master's degree. The movie, wavering precariously between comedy and drama, skips that part altogether. Instead it alternates between 1965—when Bev is so busy whining about changing diapers and resenting motherhood that she fails to notice that her husband (Zahn), a sweet-natured screwup, has become a junkie—and 1986, when her son is grown and Bev has finished writing her memoir. What's missing is how she got from A to B. That's the film we want to see.
Bev and other characters keep insisting that she's smart, though director Penny Marshall (The Preacher's Wife) doesn't show Bev doing anything to back that up. Rather, Bev behaves like a ninny and a spoiled child. That would be fine if the point were to demonstrate how she eventually overcame her self-centered behavior and became a better person and parent. But the adult Bev is just as much of a sourpuss as her teenage self. Barrymore acts the heck out of her role, without ever inhabiting it. She approaches her teen scenes with a cheerleader's concentrated pep, but in her grown-up guise seems to think that by narrowing her eyes into slits and showing hauteur she can pass for 35. As her loser hubby, Zahn gives the film's best and most bittersweet performance. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Bumpy ride
Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane
[1 Star]
One of the great unsolved mysteries—long before there was a TV show of that name—is the identity of Jack the Ripper. He murdered and gruesomely carved up at least five London prostitutes in 1888 and was never caught. In a taunting note to police, he listed his return address only as "From Hell," the title of this engrossing, stylish thriller codirected by brothers Allen and Albert Hughes (Menace II Society).
Hell's hero is a fictional cop, Inspector Fred Abberline (Depp), who spends his off-hours smoking opium. Assigned to track Jack, he begins to suspect that the Ripper is an educated man, possibly even a royal. Hell allows Abberline to solve the case (the solution is a bit baroque), but the movie's real pleasures derive from witty turns by Depp and Coltrane, who plays his sergeant; a script that appreciates the nuances of Victorian class structure and prejudices; and the fervid pre-Raphaelite beauty of Graham as a prostitute Abberline hopes to save. (R)
Bottom Line: A ripping yarn
Chris Kattan, Peter Falk, Vinessa Shaw
If not for the smutty jokes, Corky Romano could easily pass for a Jerry Lewis comedy from the early 1960s. It's certainly dumb enough. Rubber-limbed Kattan, a regular on TV's Saturday Night Live, plays the title character Corky Romano, a nice guy and would-be veterinarian who infiltrates the FBI to find out what the feds have on his mobster dad (Falk). Flailing physical comedy and many flatulence jokes ensue. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Put a cork in it
Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Delroy Lindo
Clint Eastwood must have been otherwise engaged. How else to explain why Robert Redford ended up doing his best Eastwood impression—complete with a convincing Clint squint—in a role that seems tailor-made for Carmel, Calif.'s coolest resident?
Had Redford and Gandolfini exchanged roles, The Last Castle would have been a more intriguing movie. As is, Redford plays the noble hero (again) and Gandolfini a bad guy (again). Despite a few good scenes together, both merely march in place. (R)
Bottom Line: Hard time
Animated
A young man (Wiley Wiggins) accepts a lift in a car that looks like a boat. "The ride doesn't require an explanation," the driver tells him, "just be along for the ride." That's good advice for seeing the trippy Waking Life, a philosophical phantasmagoria by writer-director Richard Linklater (The Newton Boys) in which live-action scenes are "painted" over by animators. In this groovy cartoon for thoughtful teens and grownups, Wiggins drifts about, listening as some 50 pals and strangers wax on about life, the cinematic equivalent of late-night dorm musings. (R)
Bottom Line: Worth the trip
>Bandits In a comic caper, bank robbers Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton both become romantically entangled with mixed-up housewife Cate Blanchett. Willfully colorful and goes on too long. (PG-13)
Dancing at the Blue Iguana Five strippers (including Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh) grind away at a suburban Los Angeles club. This wispy, largely improvised film by director Michael Radford (II Postino) is mostly a self-indulgent actor's exercise, with the cast basking in getting naked, physically and emotionally. (R)
Don't Say a Word In order to get his daughter back from kidnappers, shrink Michael Douglas must induce patient Brittany Murphy to divulge a secret. Psychobabble. (R)
Joy Ride Grab a seat. Sharp, scary thriller about brothers (Paul Walker and Steve Zahn) and a friend (Leelee Sobieski) being chased by a murderous trucker. (R)
The Others Nicole Kidman gives a haunting performance in a smartly told ghost story. Not that, even at Halloween time, we believe in ghosts. (PG-13)
Training Day Denzel Washington is spellbinding as a corrupt L.A. cop trying to draw an idealistic rookie, well-played by Ethan Hawke, into his web. (R)
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
