Judy Blume's novel is one classic of children's literature I haven't caught up with yet. I've read a bunch now, such as "Go Ask Alice", "My Name is Asher Lev", "The Chocolate War", but for some reason ""Are you there God? It's Me, Margaret." has escaped me.
Now that I've seen this movie version, I might have to change that. Though the author thinks it's even better than her novel.
The plot is about an eleven year old girl named Margaret and her attempts to find herself amidst a confusing family background (she is Jewish on her father's side, and Christian on her mother's side, but her maternal grandparents disowned her mother for marrying a Jewish boy).
Margaret is also uprooted at the beginning of the movie and taken to a new school where she quickly makes friends and develops a crush on a neighbourhood boy.
Margaret's friend group is strange. They compete with each other over puberty milestones and lord it over each other when they arrive. Also the de facto leader of the group is kind of a bully to poor Laura Danker, a girl who is ostracised because of her precocious puberty.
I liked this movie quite a bit. It kept me interested for most of its length. Abby Ryder Fortson was of course impressive for how well she carried the movie, but for me the standouts were Kathy Bates as her grandmother, and a young actress I hadn't seen before called Elle Graham, who played the mercurial Nancy Wheeler.
I'm wondering why I didn't like the movie as much as I wanted to. It wasn't as touching as you might have hoped, and the ending seemed kind of rushed. I looked at the run time and was disappointed it was almost over, knowing that I was going to like the movie, but would probably forget about it pretty soon.
Now that I've seen this movie version, I might have to change that. Though the author thinks it's even better than her novel.
The plot is about an eleven year old girl named Margaret and her attempts to find herself amidst a confusing family background (she is Jewish on her father's side, and Christian on her mother's side, but her maternal grandparents disowned her mother for marrying a Jewish boy).
Margaret is also uprooted at the beginning of the movie and taken to a new school where she quickly makes friends and develops a crush on a neighbourhood boy.
Margaret's friend group is strange. They compete with each other over puberty milestones and lord it over each other when they arrive. Also the de facto leader of the group is kind of a bully to poor Laura Danker, a girl who is ostracised because of her precocious puberty.
I liked this movie quite a bit. It kept me interested for most of its length. Abby Ryder Fortson was of course impressive for how well she carried the movie, but for me the standouts were Kathy Bates as her grandmother, and a young actress I hadn't seen before called Elle Graham, who played the mercurial Nancy Wheeler.
I'm wondering why I didn't like the movie as much as I wanted to. It wasn't as touching as you might have hoped, and the ending seemed kind of rushed. I looked at the run time and was disappointed it was almost over, knowing that I was going to like the movie, but would probably forget about it pretty soon.