Author Judy Blume reportedly spent 49 years turning down offers to adapt her landmark 1970 novel Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret into a film, and the version finally hitting theaters this week proves that she was right to hold off. Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig already created a modern teen classic with her 2016 debut film The Edge of Seventeen, and with Are You There God? she makes another invaluable contribution to the coming-of-age genre. Some of Blume's themes may seem quaint now, more than 50 years after the book was first published, but her story of adolescent identity and insecurity remains mostly timeless.
Craig preserves Blume's intentions by setting the movie in 1970 and remaining faithful to the plot, tackling challenges of the time period that still resonate. Abby Ryder Fortson is excellent as 11-year-old Margaret Simon, whose life is upended when her father Herb (Benny Safdie) gets a promotion, and her parents decide to move the family from New York City to New Jersey. Living in the suburbs is just one of many adjustments for Margaret as she faces down adolescence and begins to question her place in the world.
Blume's novel is remembered most for its frank depictions of puberty, which becomes a constant focus for Margaret and her new friends. Margaret's assertive, outgoing neighbor Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham) takes Margaret under her wing immediately, initiating her into the so-called secret club that also includes Gretchen Potter (Katherine Kupferer) and Janie Loomis (Amari Price). The four girls obsess over which one will get her period first and engage in silly exercises meant to help them fill out their brand-new training bras.
Like Blume, Craig approaches the subject with gentle humor, never mocking the characters for their occasional cluelessness, which makes the instances of raw vulnerability all the more affecting. Graham in particular is an absolute firebrand as Nancy, whose blithe overconfidence clearly masks some serious self-doubt. She may be a proto-mean girl, but she's never villainous, and Graham finds notes of sympathy even when she's at her most insensitive.
As its title implies, Are You There God? is about more than just changing bodies, and it treats religion and spirituality with a level of nuance and care rarely seen in mainstream American movies. Margaret's father is Jewish, while her mother Barbara (Rachel McAdams) is Christian, and they've sacrificed a lot as an interfaith couple in 1970. They've raised Margaret without any religious affiliation, leaving her to make her own choices, as she explores temple with her Jewish grandmother (Kathy Bates) and churches with her friends. Craig and Fortson show what a burden that is for a young girl who's desperate for any definitive direction in life.
It's a burden for Barbara as well, and Craig makes time to tell her story, as a woman who's left behind her conservative Midwest Christian family to marry the man she loves, then has further left behind a career in the city to follow that man to suburbia. McAdams conveys all of Barbara's hopes and regrets, which are reflected in the way she raises her daughter. Margaret is the main character, but Barbara provides a counterpoint to demonstrate that coming of age never really ends.
By sticking to the novel's structure, the movie ends up a bit episodic, and some subplots fall by the wayside as the story progresses. Are You There God? doesn't build to a major climactic confrontation or a culminating event like a prom or a graduation. It's a small movie about small moments, but those moments are what add up to a life. That's as powerful now as it was 50 years ago. ♦
ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET
