’Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’: Review

Dir: Kelly Fremon Craig. US. 2023. 105mins

A coming-of-age tale rendered with humour, sensitivity and intelligence, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is a marvellous look at adolescence which is frank but also affectionately attuned to the excitement and confusion of being young. Adapting Judy Blume’s beloved 53-year-old novel, writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig assembles a terrific cast led by Abby Ryder Fortson, who plays the titular 11-year-old as an openhearted, curious girl who is trying to understand both her changing body and the complexities of the world around her. Whether exploring religious faith or the unknowability of cute boys, Margaret treats childhood rites of passage in an honest, moving fashion which is generous to the story’s well-drawn, lived-in characters.

A coming-of-age tale rendered with humour, sensitivity and intelligence

This big-screen adaptation, the first Blume has permitted of her most influential book, opens in the US on April 28 (through Lionsgate), arriving in the UK on May 19 via Lionsgate. Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates, who play, respectively, Margaret’s mother and grandmother, are the film’s biggest names, but the source material may be the strongest selling point. Expect glowing reviews and solid box office. 

Set in the early 1970s, the picture introduces us to Margaret (Fortson), who loves living in New York City with her art-teacher mother Barbara (McAdams) and sweetly nerdy father Herb (Benny Safdie). She soon learns that the family is moving to suburban New Jersey, which will take her far away from her dear grandmother Sylvia (Bates). Devastated but trying to make the best of it, Margaret soon befriends neighbour Nancy (Elle Graham), who invites her to be part of her close-knit clique. But insecure Margaret worries that she is not maturing as quickly as her new pals, deciding to pray to God that she’ll start menstruating and develop breasts in order to feel as grownup as her peers.

Fremon Craig previously wrote and directed 2016’s The Edge Of Seventeen, which looked at a teenager’s exploration of sex, popularity and high school, and seems uniquely suited to tackling Blume’s book, which for generations has been praised (and, in some quarters, condemned) for its straightforward discussion of sexual awakening. The screenplay fleshes out the adult characters nicely, but otherwise this comedy-drama focuses on its 11-year-old protagonist, who Fortson plays with effortless immediacy. For audiences who feel wearied after so many films about adolescence in which the young characters are either achingly hip or unconvincingly awkward, Margaret has a bracing realism as Margaret is portrayed as bright and thoughtful, albeit easily (and understandably) flustered by the enormity of puberty. 

Certainly, Margaret features scenes familiar from myriad coming-of-age films. But the care that Fremon Craig brings to these moments make them fresh and funny. Fortson expresses Margaret’s misadventures involving first kisses, giddy crushes and peer pressure with such specificity that it reminds one of being an adolescent, when each new life experience felt so vivid and immense that surely nobody else could possibly understand. The film never patronises Margaret, though, nor does it romanticise her self-doubt and spiritual searching – especially when it comes to her uncertainty about God’s existence. Raised by a Christian mother and a Jewish father, both of whom want her to choose her own faith when she is older, Margaret finds herself seeking the comfort of a higher power, talking to God although she is not sure anyone is listening. 

Safdie is endearing as Margaret’s encouraging father, but the supporting cast is anchored by McAdams, whose Barbara adores her daughter, carefully balancing a desire to intervene with a belief that Margaret can figure out her own solutions. It’s a lovely performance accentuated by Barbara’s own struggles embracing suburban life, which has stripped her of her teaching job and reduced her to being a stay-at-home mother — a role she cannot quite convince herself is enough. McAdams and Fortson have a touching rapport, with Barbara never talking down to her daughter. Like the film itself, she respects Margaret’s intelligence, understanding that, although she is “just” a young girl, she is also a deep soul.

Margaret shares with its main character an interest in people — and a desire to see beyond their surface. Bates is nicely measured as the vivacious Sylvia, who lives alone and feels abandoned once the family moves to New Jersey, trying to maintain a relationship with her granddaughter despite the distance. Like Barbara, Sylvia is battling a sense of being marooned in a life she didn’t choose, and Fremon Craig perceptively examines the quiet loneliness of these two women. And Graham shines playing the subtly bullying Nancy, who convinces Margaret that she knows more about kissing and boys — mostly because she projects a blustering confidence that Margaret mistakes for real insight. Eventually, though, Margaret will discover a stronger sense of herself in a film that is remarkably wise about the aggravation and beauty of growing up.