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Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. Movie Review

Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. is a 2023 coming-of-age dramedy film directed by Kelly Fremon Craig and starring Rachel McAdams and Abby Ryder Fortson. It’s a strong, timeless film.

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“ We must, we must, we must increase our bust!“

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When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings and the beginning of adolescence. Based on the eponymous novel by Judy Blume, this feature is a textbook example of how sometimes we get a classic, timeless movie very late. This is the kind of film that should have existed decades ago, but it has only been made now. Still, it’s never late for this type of story to be told in this form.

The choice to make it a period piece was a polarizing one. On the one hand, it made the overall story more believable, but on the other hand, I am always more in favor of updating every story to the modern era for the big screen treatment. Still, the period detail here was extensive as the costumes, sets and cinematography were all fantastic, being perfectly evocative of the seventies.

Abby Ryder Fortson was a revelation here. Her Margaret is instantly memorable, fully realized and wonderfully performed as she sold every single travail of the protagonist very believably. It’s such a strong child performance. The movie deals not just with sexual awakening, but also the metaphysical and/or religious examinations that we all encounter during this period in our lives. Couple that with her family issues and you’ve got a full character arc that was highly realistic and universally relatable.

Rachel McAdams was wonderful as her mother and so inherently likable. Kathy Bates as grandmother Sylvia was the comic relief of the movie. She was hilarious at times while still being believable. All of these characters felt true to life due to excellent characterization. The rift between two families centered on religion and the upbringing of the daughter was very interesting and those scenes worked, but they were still handled with kid gloves and a more sophisticated exploration would have made for a much more intriguing film.

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Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. is a bit too long and leisurely paced. It also felt obvious and overly filmic in those humorous scenes concerned with boys and menstruation, but still this theme was mostly well explored and ultimately the movie was surprisingly relatable to me as a male viewer as all of us experience massive changes during puberty from all aspects, not just sexual ones. The light, warm look of the movie along with a wonderful score made the film tender and heartwarming. It’s one of those movies that are difficult not to really like, if not love.