Review: Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

It's not that common for an iconic novel to turn into a movie that captures its essence and is anywhere near as good as the source material. But director Kelly Fremon Craig's adaptation of Judy Blume's often frank coming-of-age story, "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret," is one such instance.

The film juggles all sorts of subjects - religion and a young girl awaiting her first period chief among them - that shouldn't translate well to a movie, but here they provide material for a wonderfully funny, very well acted, charming, and occasionally surprisingly serious examination of a young girl's ritual into adulthood. It certainly helps that the titular character, Margaret Simon, is brought to life so vividly, both through witty screenwriting and a strong performance by Abby Ryder Fortson.

As the film opens, a summer is winding down as Margaret returns from a New Hampshire summer camp and is picked up by her parents - Barbara (a luminous Rachel McAdams) and Herb (a good-natured Benny Safdie) - only to learn some shocking news. Her family is moving, much to the dismay of her melodramatic grandmother (Kathy Bates, great as always) from the five boroughs to the suburbs of New Jersey. Margaret's first conversation with God involves her asking him not to let New Jersey be "too horrible."

The family moves into a semi-WASPy neighborhood, and Margaret is immediately taken under the wing of Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham), who tells Margaret that she lives down in the street in "the bigger house." Nancy - and her mother, a PTA dominator - give off the vibe of snobbery, while Barbara is an earthy art instructor who forces herself to try to fit into the suburbs. 

However, Nancy is more complex than a caricature, and she inducts Margaret into a group of girls - which include Gretchen (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) and Janie (Amari Price). There's a wonderful chemistry among this group of girls, who form their own secret society, which involves them discussing boys, promising to divulge details of their first menstruation, and other topics. The three other members of the group are in love with pretty boy classmate Philip Leroy (Zackary Brooks), but Margaret sets her sights on the slightly older - and gangly - Moose (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong), a friend of Nancy's brother.

The film plays like a year-in-the-life of coming-of-age story, but there's a whole lot going on here. For starters, there's a fairly heart-wrenching scene early in the picture during which Barbara tells her daughter that she hasn't spoken to her fundamentalist, Midwestern Christian parents for years because they wouldn't accept that she'd married a Jew. This plot thread later comes into play during an awkward surprise visit, which involves relatives from both families.

The film is, much like Blume's book, frank about sex, bodily changes, and other topics, although the filmmakers manage to still keep it within PG-13 bounds. One of the more interesting elements of the film regarding the nonstop discussions of the horrors of puberty involve the group's cruel treatment of a tall, more-developed girl in their class, whom Margaret also instinctively shuns, but is later mortified when she realizes that she's mimicking the unkindness of people like Nancy and Philip Leroy.

For a movie with this many characters, one of its small wonders is how each of them has a distinct personality, even if in small glimmers - for example, Moose being cut off at a dinner when he's going to tell Margaret what it is he likes about her; Barbara's love of art and mournfulness around the fact that she's not partaking in it; Bates's grandmother, who obviously lives her own life, but can be a fiercely protective ally when called upon; and the girls' teacher, who challenges Margaret to examine her thoughts on religion and hilariously ducks out during a sex education film being shown to the class.

"Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" doesn't reinvent the wheel for this type of material, but it feels honest and true. It's often very funny - and many of the jokes land so efficiently because they are centered around the recognizable humiliations of young adulthood - and, at times, even uncomfortable when dealing with the challenging family dynamics. Those who survived their youth with the help of Blume's novel will likely find much to like here - and so will anyone else who has undergone the challenging experience of growing up.