Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
In Kelly Fremon Craig’s joyful adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal young adult novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” the languid dog days of a New Hampshire summer camp give way to 1970s New York City and then to a Norman Rockwellian suburban setting.
“Please don’t let New Jersey be too horrible,” whispers Margaret Simon (a luminous Abby Ryder Fortson) to God as her family packs up their car and moves to the suburbs of New Jersey. The skyline of the Big Apple is replaced by supermarket parking lots, yard sales, kids running through sprinklers.
No sooner have they pulled up in front of their sprawling new house than Margaret is invited by neighbor Nancy (Elle Graham, buoyant) to run through those same magical sprinklers with her, thus initiating her into this brave new world of suburbia. Margaret is overwhelmed by Nancy’s intense energy; she doesn’t know whether to be charmed or alarmed. She practically faints with delight when Nancy asks her if she wants to join something called a secret club, along with sixth-graders Gretchen (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) and Janie (Amari Price). It will be through these friendships that Nancy will learn about peer pressure, the pain of lies and the power of being true to oneself.
But just as they’re settling into these idyllic suburban reveries during which Craig could easily have lost me were it not for the sheer warmth emanating from every frame all too soon we get shenanigans courtesy of Nancy’s brother Evan (Landon S. Baxter) and his friend Moose (Aidan Wojtak Hissong), at which point the camera cuts to Margaret inspecting Moose’s armpit hair from her point of view perspective, a moment that had me thinking about Karen Maine’s equally exquisite coming of age film “Yes, God, Yes.” This is Margaret’s first crush, and as she holds her breath, we know that for the rest of the movie her brain will be on Moose even if it might take her that long to do anything about it.
Boys are starting to consume all of the girls, thoughts in the club. Mainly Philip Leroy (Zackary Brooks), a pretty boy who’s already proving himself to be quite the jerk, although they don’t yet have enough experience to know this. At school and in their club meetings, they gossip about other students particularly Laura Danker (Isol Young), whose body has already matured ahead of them into what they can only see as an exciting but terrifying unknown. As they wait to see who will get their period first, they try to hurry puberty along by getting training bras and reciting “I must, I must, I must increase my bust.” Craig films these scenes with such tender compassion for the girls; she never makes fun of them or paints them as silly though also never shying away from how casually cruel (in the guise of honesty) they can be.
But Margaret’s coming of age story is not just biological. After writing on a get-to-know-me paper that she doesn’t like “religious holidays,” her teacher assigns Margaret religion as a subject for year long independent study. Margaret has no religion her parents Barbara (a luminous Rachel McAdams) and Herb (Benny Safdie), want her to choose when she grows up much to the chagrin of Herb’s mother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates). So in Blume’s book, Margaret tells her friends why she doesn’t have a religion, in Craig’s film, she asks her mom because she genuinely doesn’t know.
In a series of events that was completely heart wrenching, Barbara tells Margaret that her parents did not want a Jewish son in law because they were “devout Christians,” so if she married Herb, they would not consider her their daughter anymore.
This theme is teased out on a much larger scale by Craig in this speech to Barbara about how the choices of one’s parents can affect them as an adult. The book’s focus is so laser pointed on Margaret’s experience that her parents are almost blank canvases, however, through Craig’s adaptation, Barbara becomes just as fleshed out as Margaret herself.
For example, details from the book like how Barbara likes to paint are writ large with this move to the suburbs where she leaves behind being an art teacher because she could never find time for it. So does Barbara as Margaret adjusts to life at a new school. Less fulfilled than she thought she would be with buying a new living room set for their house or joining a million PTA committees or anything else that comes along with moving into the suburbs, Barbara surrounds herself with her paintings and yearns to find some semblance of artistic inspiration in this new life.
Barbara is more than just your stereotypical “overworked mom” when McAdams takes hold of one of her generation’s most emotionally charged performers however simplistic that may sound and warmth radiates throughout the film from her character who must be both safe harbor for all of Margaret’s ever changing moods and also ship on own rocky journey toward self-actualization while still being there for said daughter every step along way which is no easy feat considering these two women have such different personalities but at same time complement each other so well as people despite everything else going wrong around them both were able bring out best selves true colors etc. you get idea here folks right? But anyhow yeah indeed quite mesmerizing performance given what we’re working with here folks right?
But really though, what does this mean for the rest of us watching this movie unfold before our eyes? Well, nothing much I suppose except that now it feels like every single other story line or scene is being overshadowed by McAdam’s portrayal (which isn’t necessarily bad thing) because she just absolutely nails down everything about her character herefrom start finish until very end where all we can say is WOW! And yet still somehow there seems something missing in between these two characters’ journeys together if you catch my drift which leaves me wondering why on earth didn’t they include more scenes showing how Margaret felt about Barbara’s attempt to reconcile with parents and vice versa or even better yet let’s hear from both girls themselves shall we?
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