Movie Review: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume is the author of many stories near and dear to the heart's of girls coming of age. Though I am trans, I grew up muddling my way through what passed as a boy's life. Most of the movies I've seen that deal with adolescents coming of age were from the boy's perspective, and I've been curious about seeing a movie from the girl's perspective.
When I saw the advertisement for this movie a few months before its release, I told my friend Gloria about it. She read Judy's books, and this is one she read many times. She said she was up for seeing this movie when it came out. As it turned out, she saw that it was coming out a day earlier. We ended up going to a different theater than we had been. I could write an article about how nice this theater was, and I might.
Margaret is a young girl going into the sixth grade. She grows up in New York with a Jewish father and a mother raised by Christian parents. Because she married a Jewish man, her parents ended up disowning her before Margaret was even born. This is revealed as the movie goes on.
I can sympathize with Margaret growing up in a neighborhood with kids she knew. In her case, she also had a close relationship with her grandmother, played by Kathy Bates. She didn't want to move to New Jersey, but her father got a better job opportunity. This happened to me as a kid.
Margaret and her family barely moved into their new home when a girl her age named Nancy befriends her. She's invited to go run through the sprinklers and then invited to join her special girl's club. The catch is she's not allowed to wear socks. Then, all the girls have to wear a bra.
Again, this is something I can only imagine coming from a girl's perspective. I've come into the bra discussion as an adult trans woman. Of course, Nancy says she's already got a bra bigger than the other girls. They're all wanting to fill out their bras, but puberty is just around the corner for them.
There is a girl named Laura who's the subject of ridicule from the other girls because she has developed quicker than the others. They spread rumors about her.
You see the certain rights of passage that girls Margaret's age go through. When they first get their periods, and who's going to be the first? Then, they have the topic of kissing a boy. There's a special moment where Margaret actually gets to kiss a boy. It's a moment that her friend Nancy is just a little bit jealous of.
From a standpoint of the rights of passage that girls go through, this movie covered the bases as far as I understand them. I can't tell you how well the movie adhered to the book. I've never read the book. If I were to make my guess, I am sure the movie interpreted it a little bit differently. I would guess they missed some things.
This is where I am going to offer my criticism. The movie just wasn't compelling as a story. There were moments that were interesting to me. The soundtrack from 1970 and the look of the movie were nice. I grew up in the late 1970s, so I appreciate this. I don't know exactly what the movie was trying to say otherwise.
There's no special goal that the girls are really trying to achieve. They sort of have a plot where the teacher is giving them their subject for the year. He instructs Margaret to do a story on religion when he finds out she really isn't religious. She does pray to God a lot. Hence the title of the movie. That's how she usually starts her prayers, "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret."
When she starts looking into religion, her grandmother is thrilled to find out that she wants to learn about the Jewish faith. Then, her grandparents on her mother's side decide they want to get into her life. Immediately, they want to talk about the Christian faith and whether Margaret would be interested in that. This part seems a little bit forced to me.
I don't understand why her mother's parents would want to see her and mend fences, but immediately their interest would turn to weather Margaret wanted to become a Christian. She's tried all of these religions, and although there's some interesting things, none of it is for her. At a point, she even says she doesn't really know if she believes in God.
This is what passes as a plot in this movie. I don't normally like to go this detailed, but I would advise that if people are watching this movie for the actual plot, there is none. It's more about the rights of passage of a young lady. I won't give away the ending. I will say that you won't be particularly overwhelmed by anything. It's not that kind of movie, and it's easily digestible.
Book readers may find something in it they like, and those curious about the rights of passage of a young girl coming of age might be interested as well. But those looking for a compelling story with interesting plot twists won't find much that they can get into here. It's a good movie for what it is, and I did enjoy it. I think what made it more enjoyable for me was the company I was in.
I'll just add that at some point I want to go and find discussions online from book readers. I'd love to know if they feel the movie was loyal enough to the book. If not, where did it fail to do its job? Either that, or I need to sit down and read the book. These days I don't read much, so the likelihood of that isn't very good.
