After being put down at a party by a boy, Beverley befriends Ray, and along with their friends, they go out for a late drive. Several hours later, her dad's police car pulls up and they're all dragged into the station. Her father is furious with her. But this anger is nothing like what she knows will happen when she breaks the big news... she's pregnant. Ray, feeling responsible, asks her to marry him since they can't "get rid of it." Her parents are mortified. Her best friend Fay is sympathetic. Everyone comes to the wedding, but no one asks her to dance. Beverley plans on having a girl. But by now she's finally figured out that her plans just aren't working. One day, after Ray has returned home late and half drunk, she's raced to the hospital. Congratulations... it's a boy!

Sixteen years old, married, and a mother, Beverley's life has changed forever. But life isn't quite finished with her yet. It has some unexpected twists and turns, not always for the better, in store for her. At least she has Fay, and she has her little boy, Jason. But will that be enough? I read a review of Riding in Cars With Boys when it first came out, but unfortunately forgot almost everything about the content. Don't make the same mistake I did. This film well deserves the PG13 rating for sexual content. Teenagers make out in hallways and bathrooms; during one lengthy scene, Beverley and Ray have a leisurely chat while Fay and her boyfriend are fooling around in the back of the car. Her father comes to get them and finds the windows fogged up. The very first opening dialogue between two little girls is all about French kissing, and a girl has a long monologue about wanting a bra. Innuendo and coarse anatomical slang abound.

In addition to this, the film has a high drug content level. Ray becomes a junkie on heroin, and Fay and Beverley take unmarked pills on-occasion. (The result is a drunken state.) Drinking, smoking, swearing, and crudeness make up the rest of the film. We see a naked baby boy several times. There is some mild language. Beverley briefly reflects on aborting the child, and is told that she could "fall down the stairs" to get rid of it; but she's too frightened to try. Her parents berate her (which is deserved) when they find out; but in a cruel twist, her father puts her down at the wedding. The film tries to be funny, but fails miserably. The humor turns out to be more painful than anything else.

The one good thing about this film is that it shows the consequences of promiscuity. By taking one wrong path, Beverley forever changed her life. She went from being a carefree happy teenager to a mom... that's a huge jump. And it's not one that many teenage girls are prepared to take. God has a plan for the lives of His children. If we follow His timeline instead of ours, life, I guarantee it, will be blessed. Our dreams are so much smaller than His are for our life. Premarital sex can ruin everything, because it's not God's way. I feel very strongly about abstinence. Too many movies write it off as being old-fashioned. They never show the consequences: the beautiful, sexy blonde never gets pregnant. Her boyfriend never gets an STD. In that sense, Riding in Cars With Boys is valuable because it doesn't skim over the issue at hand. I only wish they could have shown it in a little less graphic detail.