This is a well made and well acted but really kind of boring film. Are You There God It's Me Margaret is based on a popular young adult novel by the author Judy Blume. The story is about the trials and tribulations of a 12 year old girl who just happens to live in a really nice suburban house, has two adoring parents a grandmother who is very attached to her and attends a lily white school in the suburbs which has the usual token minority kids sprinkled throughout the classrooms.
Our heroine Margaret is apparently conflicted about her religious identity since her mother is Christian and her father Jewish. She has one way conversations with "god" and seems to develop an obsession with developing breasts and having her period. Now this may be all good and fine as a device to hang on a story. Maybe lots of teenage girls do encounter these types of body and emotional issues while growing up. However it makes for very low key drama to put it mildly. It's hard to work up much sympathy for the privileged Margaret.
This film is frustrating towards the end. After about 90 minutes of Margaret's alienation she suddenly sees the light, befriends the outcast girl in school and finally gets her period. This all comes out of nowhere. The viewer is left wondering if that's all there is to this film.
Probably the most interesting character is Margaret's mother played by Rachel McAdams. She's a woman trying to find herself in a brain dead suburban neighborhood. The mother must also deal with her hard core fundamentalist Christian parents and their anger with her in her marriage to a Jew. In fact when we cut away from the mother's story to the anxiety riddled Margaret it seems like kind of a cheat of an interesting story line.
This film got very good reviews but had very poor box office. As well made as it is it essentially comes off as a good TV movie. The film just seems to have a very limited appeal to general audiences
Written by Kelly Fremon Craig, the running time is 106 minutes.
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