Directed By Kelly Fremon Craig

Starring – Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates

The Plot – Based on the Judy Blume novel of the same name, 11-year-old Margaret (Fortson) is uprooted from her life in New York City for the suburbs of New Jersey, going through the messy and tumultuous throes of puberty with new friends in a new school. She relies on her mother, Barbara (McAdams), who is also struggling to adjust to life outside the big city, and her adoring grandmother, Sylvia (Bates), who isn’t happy they moved away and likes to remind them every chance she gets.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving sexual education and some suggestive material

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (2023) Official Trailer – Rachel McAdams – YouTube

POSITIVES

Judy Blume literally wrote the book on coming of age novels, so in adapting the sincerity of her words, she turns to Kelly Fremon Craig, a director with her own insight and experience depicting teenage sensibilities on screen. Like her feature film debut, 2017’s “The Edge of Seventeen”, Craig brings to this adaptation an underlining caustic wit to scenes of embarassing vulnerabilities, which not only effectively resonates a strong consistency of laughs for the audience to immediately get invested into the plight of its characters, but equally conjures a deafening emphasis on things that we as teenagers take too seriously or even take for granted, sprinkling some sentimentality in the nostalgia of adolesence that moves the material miles beyond the pages it was seamlessly adapted from. Even the religious element of the material feels necessary without being used as a crutch for its tonal expansions, bringing forth eloquently earned dramatic impulses that evolve and expand the conflict effectively, without hijacking the terrors of teenage depravity that much of the film’s first half is built on. As for the nostalgic element, the production designs on the film radiate a simplistic naturalism to the 70’s setting that attain believability in the depiction, without downright using them as a gimmick to distract away from where the attention rightfully belongs. The set decorations involving shag rugs and wall to wall panneling, the tasteful threads of outdated concepts inside of the wardrobe schemes, and especially the cleverness of the movie’s soundtrack garnering emotional insights to the character depicted, each help to attain credibility for the sights and sounds of east coast suburbia, with the kind of nuances from the novel that are often omitted from an adaptation, but here celebrated immersively in ways that breed consciousness like that of the many colorful characters making up this celebrated ensemble. To that credit, we’re given a barrage of meaningful performances in everyone assembled, helping to take some of the load of responsibility off of the strong shoulders of 15-year-old Abby Ryder Fortson. Rachel McAdams is stoically remarkable, serving as the heart of this household, which can not only be seen in the many activities she continuously juggles, but also in the warmth of the chemistry she shares with Fortson, emmanating a special depth between them that feels every bit lived-in as it does dependable. Kathy Bates is also a breath of fresh air, making the most of her sporadic screen time with fiery intensity inside of unapologetic honesty that helps her dominate any scene she accompanies. But of course the real firestorm is Fortson, whose tenderness and innocence doesn’t require precociousness to charm the hearts of her audience. Though this isn’t Abby’s first cinematic work, her emotional versatility easily feels decades ahead of her experience, and considering she’s bouncing off of one big name presence after another, her capabilities moving forward truly knows no boundaries. Finally, at 100 minutes even, the film is smoothly paced and continuously interesting, despite much of its conflict persevering with an almost episodic approach in its materializing. Where this is tested mostly is during the film’s second act, when repetition in structure and formula start to stack, but never in ways that feel compromising to the compelling outline of Margaret’s narrative, instead building some long-term dramatic tiers to the impactful humor that prove its depth is anything but shallow or one-dimensional.

NEGATIVES

Where the script does occasionally error on the side of caution, for my money, is in some undercooked elements of supporting characters or secondary subplots, which regretfully aren’t fleshed out in methods that transcribe importance towards how they’re anchored within the direction of the storytelling. For instance, Margaret’s father (Played by one half of the Safdie Brothers, Benny) goes mostly absent throughout a majority of the engagement, which considering literally every other member of this family receives an arc, it leaves him standing by in stationary, refusing to ever develop a dynamic of his own with his daughter, which could’ve helped in certain conflicts for Margaret where a Mother simply won’t do. Another example is in the deteriorating friendship of Margaret and Nancy (Played by Elle Graham), which by the third act feels on again and off again, but never in ways that are realized fluently or meaningfully on-screen with the confrontation it needed to mirror their obvious body language towards one another. These are far from the only two examples, just the biggest in my opinion, and ones that I wish drew more focus in a script with plenty of possibilities inside of a 100 minute run time. Beyond this, my only other problem with the film was in the occasional meandering of some dialogue not echoing the naturalism of its actors, which in turn made the intention of the message feel a bit on-the-nose by its arrival. Most of this can be forgiven because it’s coming from the perspective of kids, but I simply can’t afford the same luxary to adult characters who sound similar to their youthful counterparts, with conclusive arrivals that aren’t always earned at how they arrived.

OVERALL
“Are you There God? It’s Me, Margaret” is perhaps already one of the year’s biggest surprises, with insightfully articulent explorations of teenage vulnerabilities, which breed more than a couple of meaningfully layered performances in their benefit. Craig’s caustic wit and psychological introspection make her the perfect director to adapt the quintessential coming of age novel of our time, bringing with her a faithfully tasteful adaptation that never cuts corners in conveying the heartbreaking humility of teenage adolescence and the unpredictable circumstances of bodily transition.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+