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Growing up can be hard, hard enough without the pressure of acquiring breasts, blood (that is, period) and boys – the markers that Margaret (Forston) finds herself competing to reach, against a set of newly acquired friends.
Can God help? Depends on the kind of God you turn to. Is it the God that answers the prayers you send out in silence, the one you have a one-to-one conversation with? Or is it the God residing in fancy temples and churches, with ceremony attached, most of which passes you by?
Would a good God let you grow up at the pace ordained for you, or would one lead you there as per the written word?
Margaret, between the ages of 11 and 12, at the cusp of a puberty that holds as much promise as paranoia, getting the first glimpses of all in life that’s “forbidden” so far, must tackle all of the above in this sweet little slice of a film, based on a book by the same name by Judy Blume.
The period is the 1970s, and Forston is just the right touch for a girl who finds herself moved one fine day from New York to New Jersey, changing her world suddenly in a lot many small things which are perhaps not even visible to her loving parents, Barbara and Herb (McAdams and Safdie).
Kids are kids still in that era, spending their afternoons making up secret clubs, trying to source anatomy books and Playboys for inaccessible “knowledge”, and dancing under sprinklers for fun. Margaret is trying to fit in, a little confused, but happy to be a groupie.
The friends she picks up have literally just barged into her new life, led by the very competitive and bossy Nancy, the school’s queen bee whom people like Margaret flock around. However, in one of the film’s many nice touches, Nancy (an effective Graham) is really just a child at heart, not capable of real malice, and who is terrified when the periods she has been longing to have finally arrive when she is out having dinner at a restaurant.
This is another thing the book and the film are about – the often unacknowledged fears about growing up, which can be as much physical as in the mind. The coming of “womanhood” and what it means for a little girl, and the little girl’s mother having a moment on the other side of the door, is among the film’s most moving scenes.
McAdams is as wonderful as Barbara, who has been denounced by her Christian parents for marrying a Jewish guy, who lets herself be swept into the cliquish circle of PTA moms before she decides she wants none of it. Bates plays Herb’s mother Sylvia who, unlike Barbara’s parents, is almost too around, both accentuating a gap and filling it.
All of the women find their answers in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret… They just take different routes to it.
It may not be a scintillating journey, but it’s one that carries the warmth of you and me.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret movie director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret movie cast: Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Benny Safdie, Kathy Bates, Elle Graham
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret movie rating: 3 stars
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