¿Estás Ahí, Dios? Soy Yo, Margaret

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, the film adaptation of Judy Bloom's 1970 blockbuster coming-of-age novel, is a quiet buster all its own. Rarely has cinema captured an 11-year-old marching toward puberty with such grace and dignity. In the film's road to maturation, three generations of women will face change just as child/teen Margaret does. Abby Ryder Fortson plays Margaret with a realism that looks as if she were always Margaret.

Margaret is moving from a robust neighborhood in 1970's NYC to dreaded suburban New Jersey carrying a disdain she and her Grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), evidence with some of the film's best lines. Margaret is not rabid in her criticism of the move, just grumpy and negative. To her interlocutor, God, she pleas, "Don't let Jersey be too awful."

For any youth who has been forced to move from a lively life and friends, this segment will have them chuckling as they remember how they tortured parents when disapproving something done for a better family life and dad's promotion. No pleasing a pre-teen most times anyhow.

Much of the film's energy comes from Margaret and her friends navigating the emergence of boys in their lives and the much-anticipated period. This monumental occurrence is welcomed with great fanfare. The girls' embracing emerging busts is encouraged with a lyric that invokes the life marker and prods it along: "We must, we must, we must increase our bust."

Every other possible pre-adolescent moment in young girls' journey through sixth grade to junior high seems to be covered, and probably was in Judy Bloom's book of the same name. Less physical but no less as powerful is her nascent religiosity confronting her roots in Judaism (father) and Christianity (mother and grandmother).

The cause of the split with her maternal grandparents over her mother marrying a Jew has the potential to bring the family together. However, it will be a long haul for an impatient child/teen who wants family unity almost as much as a period and bigger bust. Her interlocuter, both in person and voiceover, is a God she's not certain is real. Talk about demanding issues for a child/teen!

As in life, not all girls are mean and not all teachers inept; everybody's just trying to get through. If the girls seem to be wishing their life away, they are, but their tender moments of love and friendship promise that humanity will be served.

Writer/director Kelly Fromon Craig's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret should be required viewing for anyone mixing it up with different cultures or anyone wanting to experience a pitch-perfect adaptation of a seminal work of art.

Based on Judy Blume's seminal coming of age book, young Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) is eleven and has to move from school and friends to New Jersey where she starts her journey into puberty with 3 new girl friends all competing about boob size, getting their period first and boys.

This all seems so real and spot on and much of it is simply hysterical. It does though look more broadly at growing up and the the less obvious troubles one faces in becoming your own person rather than who everyone else wants you to be, which at 11 is tricky. This part of the story is focussed here on religion for which Margaret does a school project on and comes to realise that picking a religion is difficult and not actually necessarily a must do when her grandparents - Jewish and Christian give her grief over the right way forward. It's all handled very nicely with the young girls, especially Fortson and Elle Graham, all excellent with great support from Rachel McAdams as her mum and the wonderful Kathy Bates as the doting Jewish grandmother. Funny and sweet.

So much to think about after seeing this today. I thought the acting was very good. Realistic. In 4th grade I remember a big controversy at my school about this book. We were not allowed to read it. That was 1978. How refreshing to see what all the fuss was about. Anyway, I enjoyed seeing this film and look forward to buying the book! Powerful. Kathy Bates character is so lovable and fun. Who wouldn't want a Grandma like that? Her timing is hilarious. She's so warm in all the right places. She's the true hero to me. Costumes/attire/fashions seemed believable. Kudos to costume designers. Of course kudos to Judy Blume for the courage to write a book for girls with big ideas. Because we have brains.

At least marginally better than "Are You There, God? It's me, Jonah Hill. From Moneyball."

Succinctly and pleasantly low stakes; there isn't any high-great drama, until the last twenty minutes, but the tone is consistent and manages to get deep about Faith, or really the absence of it, or how hard it can be for a young person to comprehend how, as Margaret ultimately puts it in the assignment to the teacher, religion makes people fight all the time.

For the most part, this is a story that is a School Year in the Life abd it's perfectly content to be about things like, oh, how you're fitting in with a new group of friends (some more agreeable than others), which boys are cute or not, and yet it's actually about something deeper due to the comparison the film makes between Margaret with Nancy and Margaret's Mom with the PTA (led by... Nancy's Mom): a Group isn't inherently a bad thing, but when there's one person asking or really demanding for this and that with pressures it can add to the already-there pressure of life in Suburbia.

Abby Ryder Fortson is so appealing and wonderful in the lead part, where your heart always goes out to her and she is funny and sympathetic and sometimes awkward in that way an 11 to 12 year old is at that time. The film maybe wraps everything up a little too tidy by the end for me, but it's hard to make a fuss when what is all wrapped up is all just, well, "will I finally talk to Moose who mows the lawn, or will "It" happen in the bathroom?" I never read the book, but it feels like it probably managed to bring everything in adaptation that was necessary (though I wonder if things between Margaret and Nancy came more to a head in the book than here, where things just kind of leave off on a silent understanding of a lie).

If it doesn't reach quite the heights of the director's previous movie, Edge of Seventeen, it's still never less than entertaining, amusing is not always funny (ok the dinner scene with both sides of the families is funny), and it's impressive that this can be in theaters as something for families to see that isn't the more soulless IP or candy-coated fast food.

Watched it right after watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Anyways this sweet little coming of age film is about Margaret as she tries to figure out a lot of things as a teenager. She is in sixth grade and had to move to New Jersey, leaving her grandmother and friends as her parents decided to shift after the father earned a promotion. In the new city, she makes new friends, waits to have first period and experience her first kiss, while juggling through her biggest conundrum, religion.

The performance stood out along with the smart writing. I instantly bought into these teen characters and their innocence, while relating to the adults emotionally. Margaret reaching out to God throughout the movie simply had a nice touch. Though it doesn't dwell much into the religious aspect, the whole Jewish vs catholic Christians thing, it does handle it without getting preachy. It definitely had multiple stand out scenes, ranging from hilarious to heart touching moments.

Definitely recommended.