'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' Review: Mostly Right, Mostly Enjoyable
For a novel that came out in 1970, Judy Blume’s novel would still be considered controversial by a number of its audience’s parents. But the same reasons for that are also why it has continued to be hailed as a classic. The novel tackled such topics such as puberty, faith, family, and bigotry with a frankness which was not often seen in middle-school literature. Despite the wild success of her novel, Blume nevertheless turned down offer after offer to adapt the novel into a film. Finally, more than half a century since the book first came out, writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig and producer James L. Brooks present their adaptation of the same name.
With this film, Craig marks her long-awaited sophomore directorial film, a full seven years after her first one, that being the brilliant and underrated The Edge of Seventeen. Like that film, this is a story about a girl’s genuine struggles within a setting that has become conventional to us after decades of pop culture. While the former was about a teenager in the 2010s, Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is an 11-year-old girl in 1970. Her parents tell her that they are moving from her grandmother’s home in New York City for the suburbs of New Jersey. It is here that Margaret’s personal journey begins, even as she starts at a new school and makes new friends. Little does she know that her mother Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and grandmother Sylvia (Kathy Bates) are making parallel journeys of their own, and they will intersect with hers when she least expects it.
Ultimately, that is the film’s biggest strength; it becomes more than just a coming-of-age story and expands its exploration of womanhood at three different stages. We see Barbara and Sylvia’s struggles and tribulations, which they have to manage while assisting Margaret on her own way. While the emphasis is clearly on Margaret, the film still puts each woman’s struggle into perspective with the other two. Everyone is allowed to look vulnerable, uncertain, and conflicted, which makes their portrayal as timeless as the novel itself.
Margaret, for one, is on the cusp of puberty. She and her friends discuss subjects with wide-eyed curiosity and amazement. They act like they understand what’s happening in an attempt to hide just how scared and insecure they are. There is a lot for Margaret to struggle over in her story; she is anxious about her own maturity in comparison with her friends, she is faced with the consequences of hurtful things she says and does out of carelessness and ignorance, and she questions her own faith in God, wavering between her mother’s Christian background and her father’s Jewish faith. Sadly, there is only so much time to devote to each issue. There are two misfit characters in her class (played by Simm May and Isol Young), but only one of them is given the chance to be humanised in the protagonist’s eyes. Admittedly, the characters who appear have become cliches since the novel was first written. If some of it plays out in a rather routine fashion, that is because our society has caught up to the novel’s story. In other senses, the frankness of this film proves that Western society still has a ways to go in terms of progress.
Secondly, there is Barbara. The movie is just as much of an adjustment as Margaret’s, but Barbara is also caught between the responsibility of motherhood and the unresolved trauma from her own parents. McAdams’ performance is a career highlight, even for someone as talented and accomplished as her. Take, for example, the moment where she is forced to appear vulnerable before Margaret’s innocent questions; watch as she struggles to smile and calmly explain why her parents don’t speak to her, all while she desperately wipes tears from her eyes. As with Margaret, there sadly isn’t enough time to fully flesh out all her struggles, even if one gives leeway to ambiguity in the name of realism.
Thirdly, there is Sylvia. Her story is given the least attention, and is often made to be the comic relief. Yet even with that emphasis, Bates is allowed to play a three-dimensional character. Just like Margaret, Sylvia is devastated by her son and daughter-in-law’s decision to move, and she is forced to face her mortality in an empty nest. This only intensifies her protective spirit, especially where her son and granddaughter are concerned. Like Barbara, she is pulled into Margaret’s story at crucial intervals, for good or ill. And truthfully, it speaks volumes that any one of these three women could have taken the role of protagonist without diminishing the story.
Although this film undoubtedly belongs to the three main women of the story, there are several supporting characters who are given their moments to shine. Benny Safdie does a great job playing Herb Simon, Margaret’s father, through comedic and highly dramatic moments. Echo Kellum portrays a sensitive teacher whose conversations with Margaret tip the first domino in Barbara’s main plot. There’s also Elle Graham, Amari Alexis Price, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer as Margaret’s new friends. Their chemistry is utterly convincing, and one can only imagine where these four young actresses will go from here.
There are certainly criticisms that one could make of this film. Some might say that some of the supporting characters are too thin, even with all the aforementioned development. Some might be turned off by the focus on awkward and cringe comedy. Some might call the story tame, conventional, formulaic. Some might say that the film does not resolve everything satisfactorily. However, despite all that, one cannot deny that this was made by talented people - both in front of and behind the camera - who were interested in telling a complex story without simple answers. If nothing else, this was certainly the film adaptation which the novel deserved, and Blume was wise to wait fifty years to get it.