ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET. (2023) ★ ★ ★ ★



Great stories deal with big themes, things like personal growth (the hero's journey), love, hatred, war, religion, death. Writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig adapted Judy Blume's 1970 coming-of-age story about a pubescent girl and her daily adventures into a deft film that deals with a few of these overarching subjects. When I went to see it, I expected a modernized (i.e., sanitized) version of a very down-to-earth story, but was surprised to find that the picture embraces the trials and tribulations of its protagonist in the context of the early seventies, and doesn't attempt to update the material. This was wise; Judy Blume's novel is a bestseller because it's a good yarn, and good yarns shouldn't be tampered with. 

Successful movies are always well cast, and "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." is cast perfectly. Rachel McAadams shines as Barbara Simon, mother of Abby Ryder Fortson's Margaret. The ageless Kathy Bates is convincing as granny Sylvia, and Elle Graham elicited a few laughs in the theater as Margaret's cavalier friend. Every actor was awarded a role in which they had at least a few seconds to convey the ordinary humanity of their characters, and although the runtime felt a little long (it could have been clipped down to ninety minutes; the birthday party scene is expendable), their parts fleshed out the reality of growing up in Vietnam War-era America. The film highlights how young people at the time were obsessed with forging and maintaining their pre-social media social connections, and how the adults raising them sometimes behaved worse than their children. Unlike "Licorice Pizza," which is an appallingly false account of the period, the attention to detail in Craig's vision is incredible, right down to the bottles of Pinaud Clubman on drugstore shelves. I really felt like I'd traveled back in time. 

The most interesting facet of the film was its focus on religion. Although I haven't read Blume's novel, I have read that it's a meditation on how differences in faith can divide families. The film doesn't shy away from this subject, and is all the better for it. Fortson's Margaret navigates the rough waters of her father's Judaism and her mother's Christianity with the kind of thoughtful sincerity that very few child actors can pull off. I appreciate this film, not so much for its many technical achievements, but for offering to twenty-first century viewers a bright glimpse back at how full of wonder and sensitivity we used to be. 


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