As someone who really liked Kelly Fremon Craig’s last film, “The Edge of Seventeen,” I can’t say I was particularly taken by “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.” It’s a very sweet movie, with good intentions, but not necessarily involving.
Don’t tell that to critics. They seem to be throwing glowing praise towards Craig’s film. I’ve also noticed that 95% of the reviews submitted so far on Rotten Tomatoes are from female critics, that could also be a determining factor as to whether or not you’ll be won over by the film.
Judy Blume’s landmark 1970 YA novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” was rather frank in its depiction of an 11-year-old girl dealing with religion, boys, anxieties and puberty. This adaptation, written and directed by Craig, doesn’t duck on these topics, but the character of Margaret is polished up a bit too tidily, to the point of caricature.
While that might disappoint Blume fans, others might not realize that the novel’s more honest truths have been replaced here by comfort food storytelling.
The film begins with Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) coming home from summer camp. Little does she know that she’s about to go through a transitory period in her life. Her parents, Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and Herb (Benny Safdie), have Margaret moving from Manhattan to New Jersey, leaving behind her dearly loved grandmother (Kathy Bates). Goodbye big city, hello suburbia. This means new friends including leader of the pack Nancy (Elle Graham), a popular blonde who insists that Margaret and company wear bras.
This also means that, despite the absence of menstrual cycles, the girls need to go to the drugstore to awkwardly buy sanitary pads as the 20-ish male cashier stares them down. It’s in these scenes that Craig gets the details right and doesn’t shy away from pulling out hard truths about growing up.
These are all well-played out scenes that don’t shy away from the awakrdness of pre-teen mental hysteria, but there’s not enough of them. We didn’t need a subplot involving the existential dilemmas of Margaret’s stay-at-home mom (McAdams is great, as usual). Also, why was Safdie even chosen to play the dad? He’s miscast here.
What’s disappointing about “Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret” is its insistence on sticking with formula. The lead character’s sudden interest in religion leads to another misbegotten subplot where she visits churches and synagogues.
However, worst of all is Craig’s insistence to bypass the more hard-nosed details of the novel, the imperfections that come in being Margaret. Craig has polished the titular character up to the point of inauthenticity — tying up all of life’s imperfect strands into one tidy outlook on girl pains. [C+]
Zeller’s feature debut, “The Father,” was an acclaimed and Oscar-winning film. Many believe he struck out with his sophomore effort, 2022’s critically maligned “The Son.” This is another miss.