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MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret arrives on theater screens with a bit of a reputation. This middle-grade book by Judy Blume was first published in 1970 and has never gone out of print. And there are continual efforts to ban and remove it from school libraries and reading lists. The objectionable topics are religion and sex.

Since many people who feel inclined to censor literature never actually want to read the books that bother them, it is a public service that Kelly Fremon Craig has rendered with her faithful adaptation.

Let me take a moment to highlight these controversies (without spoiling the plot).

Religion: Sixth grader Margaret Simon (Fortson) is in the habit of occasionally talking to God, even though she’s not really sure about God. She definitely doesn’t care for religious holidays and finds them confusing since her mom (McAdams) is Christian and her dad (Benny Safdie) is Jewish. Her parents have left Margaret’s faith decision up to her. When a new teacher hears about this, he suggests that Margaret explore religious beliefs as a class assignment. Margaret attends a variety of church services including a suburban Protestant church, a gospel congregation, and synagogue worship with her Jewish grandmother (Kathy Bates). By the end of the film, Margaret is still pondering, but she remains open-minded about further conversations.

Sex: Sixth grade girls are discovering that their bodies are maturing in many different ways and they want to talk about it with each other. After moving with her parents from New York City to the New Jersey suburbs, Margaret meets Nancy (Elle Graham), a neighbor kid her same age, who invites her to join a secret club with other classmates Gretchen (Katherine Kupferer) and Janie (Amari Price). They will experience first crushes on boys, play innocent kissing games at a party, and talk about bras and sanitary napkins and wonder about when they will get their first menstrual period.

That’s it. The two “hot button” topics are puberty and freedom to think about religion. No hullabaloo with this critic, since Christians are supposed to think about religion all the time and there’s absolutely nothing that we can do to avoid puberty; it’s going to happen!

What I really appreciated about this film is how it gently suggests that friendship and openness can create a safe place for girls who are wondering about navigating the physical and spiritual changes of early adolescence.

The film suffers a bit from its own niceness. There is talk about menstruation without ever really defining what it is. Actual discussions about faith are also never seen onscreen. In other words, “If you know what we’re talking about, you know what we’re talking about.”

Having the entire movie take place in 1970 means that this particular girl’s story is not going to be substantially helpful to 21st century tweens trying to make sense of a world in which social networking is brutal, the internet and network programming are filled with sex and coarse language, many grow up in alternative kinds of families, and most people are not part of a regular faith community.

However, if you want to know how things were like for Grandma back in the day, have I got an Afterschool Special for you.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating:

Four halos: A classic YA book brought lovingly and faithfully to the screen.
Two pitchforks: The controversies of the past are yours to ponder.

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