Riding in Cars with Boys
Directed by Penny Marshall
TheoScope Rating
Worldview · content · moral framework
Plot
Seriocomic story based on the memoir by Beverly Donofrio, the movie follows a young woman who finds her life radically altered by an event from her teen years. Born in 1950, Beverly grew up bright and ambitious in a working-class neighborhood in Connecticut; her father was a tough but good-hearted cop who listened to his daughter's problems, and her mother was a nervous woman eager to imagine the worst. From an early age, Beverly displays a keen intelligence and an interest in literature, and dreams of going to college in New York and becoming a writer. However, she also develops an early interest in boys, and at 15 finds herself madly in love with a boy from her high school. However, an attempt to get his attention leads to an embarassing incident at a party, and Ray, a sweet but thick-headed 18-year-old, steps forward to defend her. Beverly and Ray end up making out, and after one thing leads to another, Beverly discovers she's pregnant. Telling Ray is only marginally less difficult than informing her parents, and at 16, Beverly is a wife and mother. Against the odds, Beverly is determined to still finish high school and go on to college, but that goal becomes more difficult with time, especially after Beverly's marriage begins to fall apart. Ray tries to do the right thing but has trouble holding a job, and becomes addicted to heroin.
Discern Score Breakdown
30%
30%
25%
15%
Audience Suitability
Kids
Under 10
Teens
10–17
Adults
18+
Family
Mixed ages
Content Flags
Riding in Cars with Boys is a well-acted, earnest adaptation of Beverly Donofrio's memoir about the long shadow a teenage pregnancy casts over a woman's life. It is honest about consequences but lacks any theological or transcendent moral framework, operating entirely within a secular humanist worldview. The film is best suited to adult viewers who can engage its cautionary elements critically and with discernment.
Pastoral Take
This film is not appropriate for children or most teenagers — the frank depiction of teen pregnancy, implied sexual activity involving a minor, and Ray's heroin addiction make it adult material in substance, not just rating. Parents of older teens (16 and up) might consider watching it together as a frank conversation-starter about how choices made in adolescence can reshape a life, but be prepared for the film to offer no spiritual answers to the pain it documents. For adults, it has genuine cautionary value and emotional honesty, but it should be watched with the awareness that it will not point you or your children toward Christ — that work belongs to you.
Discussion Points
- 1Beverly's father tells her early in the film that she's smart enough to do anything — but her choices at fifteen derail those dreams for decades. Do you think the Bible would say our choices are really that powerful? What does Galatians 6:7-8 mean when it says 'a man reaps what he sows,' and how do you see that playing out in Beverly's life?
- 2Ray clearly loves Beverly and his son Jason in his own way, but his addiction to heroin causes him to keep failing the people who depend on him. The film seems to feel sorry for Ray more than it judges him. Do you think there's a difference between understanding why someone makes destructive choices and excusing those choices? How does the Bible hold both compassion and accountability together?
- 3At the end of the film, Beverly and Jason work through years of hurt and reach a kind of forgiveness and understanding. That reconciliation is real and moving — but do you think something was missing from it? What would forgiveness look like if it also involved God, not just two people deciding to let go of the past?
- 4Beverly spends most of the film believing that becoming a writer is the thing that will finally make her life meaningful. When she finishes her memoir, does she seem truly at peace? Where do you think lasting meaning actually comes from, and what does Jesus say about that in John 10:10?
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Cast
Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, Adam Garcia
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