Published 53 years ago, Judy Blume’s novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret has become a literary standard for children, especially for young girls. Less required reading and more a universally accepted classic, Blume’s book is a coming-of-age tale that is simultaneously an informative comedy-drama and an omnipresent reflection of its readers’ experience. Full disclosure: I’ve never read Margaret, though it’s reputation is ubiquitous. Kelly Fremon Craig’s film adaptation feels free of any burden of legacy, embracing the universality of its story without winking about its own importance. In Fremon Craig’s hands, Margaret goes beyond an adolescent girl’s acceptance of growing up, and becomes a multi-generational opus about dealing with the triumphs and disappointments that life has to offer.

Abby Ryder Fortson plays Margaret, an eleven year-old New Yorker who returns to Manhattan after going to sleepaway camp in 1970. Her joyous return is cut short when her mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams), explains that they will be moving to the suburbs of New Jersey after her father, Herb (Benny Safdie), gets a big promotion. The news is heartbreaking for Margaret – what about her friends? her neighborhood? – but it’s even worse for her grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), who despairs about her son and granddaughter deserting her in the city. Nervous about the move, Margaret decides to address God for the first time. With a Jewish father and a Christian mother, Margaret was never given any guidance about what her beliefs should be. The God she speaks to is nebulous and undefined, but it becomes her main outlet in the midst of her difficult transition.

Life in New Jersey proves easy at first. Margaret quickly makes friends with a local girl named Nancy (Elle Graham), a gregarious but vain alpha who quickly places Margaret into her secret club (first rule: no socks!). For Barbara, transitioning into being a stay-at-home mom is more complicated. She volunteers for PTA activities which she quickly learns are tedious. Back in New York City, Sylvia is quick to make plans to get Margaret over for a visit, desperate to avoid the idleness of advanced age and rekindle her former life. Are You There God? is definitively the story of Margaret, but one of its charms is how well the story balances the narrative between the three women, each managing unsteady emotions as they try to fathom change.

Managing the social politics of her new school proves fraught for Margaret, as Nancy dictates who is and isn’t worthy of admiration. There is the dreamboat popular boy with the silky brown hair, then there’s the pugnacious, bespectacled dweeb who smiles cheekily at any girl in his vicinity. One girl, Laura Danker (Isol Young), is tall and already (gasp!) has breasts. Laura’s mature figure makes her a social pariah, as Nancy is quick to fabricate stories about her promiscuity. Nancy’s secret club has meetings where arbitrary rules are created like required bra wearing and a notebook that holds the identity of your crush. Over the course of the school year, Margaret becomes obsessed with reaching puberty, getting her breasts, and especially getting her period. As she strives to get to womanhood, her mother and grandmother continue making their own life adjustments around her.

Kelly Fremon Craig’s previous film, The Edge of Seventeen, was another story of a grade school girl (played brilliantly by Hailee Steinfeld) eager to reach a sexual maturity she doesn’t totally understand. Seventeen was unique in being a sincere coming-of-age teen comedy that was also explicit in showing how teenagers talk and think about sexuality (the film was rated R). Margaret doesn’t try to be as edgy but it does polish some of the rougher edges of Fremon Craig’s debut. Where Seventeen was bracing, Margaret stands modestly, more natural in its posturing. Both films prove the writer-director’s tact with younger actors and the ways she sees adolescence reflected in the lives of adults. Neither movie contains judgment or fear in its dealing with frank material, and the confidence in the storytelling is reflected in the assuredness of the filmmaking.

This is all to say that Fremon Craig is a genuine entity, a filmmaking force to look out for. I marveled at Margaret‘s ability to vacillate between its parallel narratives, with even the supporting characters given glimpses of nuance and clarity. It’s easy to see the worse, more insipid version of this movie, but Fremon Craig expertly avoids it, leaning into the complexities of her characters and doing right by them even when they don’t do right by themselves. Like Steinfeld in Edge of Seventeen, the young actresses in Margaret give great, vulnerable performances. Elle Graham’s Nancy is a frustrating egomaniac, but Graham makes her human enough that her comeuppance feels close to tragic. In the title role, Fortson proves talented enough to lead a movie – no easy task in itself – and rises to the daunting task of actualizing such a popular character. (If I’m demoting this movie in any way, I’d only mention the presence of Benny Safdie, an “actor” I’m eager to see less of.)

This brings me to Rachel McAdams, a veteran, first-rate performer whose career has been churned through the Hollywood machine for nearly two decades. Thankless female leads in male-centric films (Wedding Crashers, Sherlock Holmes) or potential star vehicles where she was made to overcome unbecoming scripts (The Vow, Morning Glory), McAdams has managed to keep her dignity within an industry that hasn’t always held her in proper regard. Her star-making performance in Mean Girls and her Oscar-nominated performance in Spotlight may be the only times the stars aligned properly to showcase everything she has to offer. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret may possibly be the best performance of her career; a vast, complicated portrait of a woman trying to be a mother while her life is in flux. Poignant, funny, heartbreaking – McAdams uses the full palette. She’s the best part of an exceptional film and one would hope she’s appropriately recognized for it.

 

Written for the Screen and Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig