1h 46m / PG-13 / Comedy, Drama
In 1970, eleven-year-old Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson in a starmaking turn) returns to her New York City home after spending her summer at a sleepaway camp. Her parents, Barbara and Herb, inform her that the family is moving to a New Jersey suburb for her father’s job, which is, of course, about the closest thing to the end of the world as exists when you’re eleven (going on twelve). Desperate for an answer to why this and so many other things are happening, and having been raised in a two-religion household with no affiliation for either faith, she begins to talk to God in her own words. She relies on her mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams) for love and support; she talks with her grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), who is coming to terms with finding happiness in the next phase of her own life. She studies the religious beliefs of others. And with the dogged determination of a preteen who has just begun to live, she explores questions about identity, conflict, her own body and emotions, and life’s meaning in conversation with every feature of the world around her.
Based on the 1970 middle-grade novel by Judy Blume, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret stays true to the classic right down to its '70s setting, but the story still feels totally current and relatable. Beautiful, sensitive, effervescent in its joy and refreshingly frank in its curiosity, this long-awaited adaptation more than does justice to Blume’s seminal book.
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