Judy Blume is without doubt one of the most famed YA authors of all time. In reality, Blume could be given credit score for serving to it emerge as a definite mode of writing, as YA books weren’t actually acknowledged as their very own factor when she started her writing profession. Blume’s work is prolific, together with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blubber, Freckle Juice, and naturally, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The ebook was acclaimed when it got here out in 1970 for its frank dialogue of puberty and feminine adolescence, in addition to for the spiritual battle of its protagonist. Blume’s books have been a battle to adapt, although, with few makes an attempt and even fewer successes. Lionsgate purchased the rights to this one in 2020 and produced a movie that Judy Blume herself says is best than her ebook.
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (The Fringe of Seventeen), the movie sticks to its supply materials by being a interval piece and setting itself in 1970. Craig does a wonderful job of grounding the movie in its time interval whereas additionally writing and presenting the fabric to play to a contemporary viewers. Just like the ebook, it follows Margaret, a younger woman coming into highschool after a transfer to New Jersey who faces the pressures of rising into a girl, coping with a transfer, and wrestling with spiritual id; she has a Christian mom and a Jewish father.
It will have been a better option to replace the movie to a contemporary setting. Whereas a number of the points are intently tied to the time interval, one can think about a movie government deciding that younger audiences wouldn’t connect with a movie set in 1970. However the insistence on sticking to the unique setting is to the movie’s profit. The struggles within the movie are conveyed with authenticity, and that authenticity is what permits it to nonetheless resonate in the present day. The movie’s critical exploration of non secular struggles and looking for religion works rather well in a manner {that a} modernized model doubtless would have fumbled.
This reviewer is neither a feminine nor a youngster, however all the identical, the fabric resonates. The movie navigates Margaret’s struggles in an easy manner that neither over-dramatizes the fabric nor renders it pleasant to the purpose of being saccharine. The movie handles its themes with out aplomb and offers them the load wanted to land.
It additionally helps that the forged is great. Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates play the mom and grandmother of the lead, respectively, and each do an ideal job with their materials. The characters each have their very own minor arcs enjoying out that, whereas not the primary focus, find yourself complementing the struggles of Margaret and offering perception into their relationship with the lead.
Abby Ryder Forston, who performs Margaret, can also be a delight. Primarily identified for her minor position in two Ant-Man motion pictures, right here she is given time to shine, and proves that Marvel was silly to remove the position of Cassie Lang from her. Forston has such a power in her efficiency of Margaret, but in addition an trustworthy vulnerability. It’s a movie that enables Margaret to really feel and present ache, frustration, and fear, with out changing into overly mopey. Her character needs to slot in and have buddies and is a bully and is bullied in equal half. Because of this, it feels extra trustworthy than so many movies that scale back youngsters to broad stereotypes. It is a credit score to the writing of each Fremon and Blume.
If there’s any criticism, it’s that the movie does really feel a tad gentle. There are a couple of occasions the place issues are handed by in a breeze and really feel underdeveloped. The ending feels a bit rushed and doesn’t set up the brand new established order fairly in addition to it might have. A tad extra polish in that regard might have elevated an ideal movie right into a genre-defining one. All the identical, Are You There God? appears like a definitive Judy Blume adaptation, and a welcome signal of hopefully extra nice diversifications of her works.
