Writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig showed a rare knack for tapping into the careering, catapulting uncertainties of the adolescent female mind with her terrific 2016 debut picture The Edge of Seventeen. It’s a talent that serves her well – with younger girls this time – in her follow-up: a warm, emotionally agile adaptation of Judy Blume’s much-loved 1970 novel.
Playing 12-year-old Margaret, Abby Ryder Fortson is terrific – a ball of social anxiety, navigating a move from New York to the Jersey burbs as well as the rocky path from childhood to womanhood. But what adds satisfying layers and broadens the film’s appeal is the fact that Fremon Craig doesn’t confine her focus to Margaret and her friends. Margaret’s mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams), is wrestling with her own existential crisis. With a smile that frays a little around the edges, and a peppy enthusiasm that can’t quite hide the doubts, McAdams wrings every last drop of pathos from her scenes, almost upstaging her screen daughter in the process.
