FILM PICK OF THE WEEK
Based on Judy Blume’s 1970 best-selling coming-of-age novel, about a teenage girl on the cusp of womanhood, this sensitive and often very funny adaptation is set in the year of the book’s publication. It has a lovely nostalgic 1970s orangey yellow-tinted hue, and associated innocence, but many of the issues faced by the young Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) remain the same today.
The film opens with bright, happy 12-yearold Margaret arriving back home to New York city from summer camp to be greeted with the news that her small family – herself, mom Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and dad Herb (Benny Safdie) – will be moving to New Jersey as Herb has just been promoted. Meanwhile Barbara has agreed to give up her job as an art teacher to become a full-time stay at home mom.
Margaret is distraught – she doesn’t want to leave the city, nor does she want to be separated from her fun and feisty grandmother, Herb’s widowed mom Sylvia (Kathy Bates). But, as a child, she ultimately has no say in the matter and she feels this injustice very keenly. Her first conversation with God is to ask for help in preventing the inevitable move from happening. They head to the suburbs where the mothers are all perfectly coiffed and perkily involved in the PTA, quite a contrast to McAdams’ more hippy bohemian style. She has to make adjustments just as her daughter does.
Margaret is quickly into the fray of having to navigate tricky friendships with other girls, burgeoning interest in boys, worrying about when to start wearing a bra and anticipating the arrival of her first period.
She is taken under the wing of her forceful young neighbour Nancy (Elle Graham) who introduces her to her group – they all have to promise to not wear socks, to wear bras and to keep a “boy book” in which they jot down their thoughts on the various eligible pre-teen jocks. It is all very sweet and relatable – there is one excruciatingly awkward pre-teen party sequence that may resonate for many viewers.
The theme of religion and Margaret’s relationship to it also has a serious aspect to it when the shocking reason behind her never having met her maternal grandparents is revealed. This issue, and the others raised, are all dealt with sensitively, frequently with warmth and humour, in writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig’s accomplished script.