With summer holidays starting this weekend, you know that child and parent friendly films are going to be in their ascendency both in cinemas (BARBIE an obvious example) and on the small screen. ARE YOU THERE GOD? ITS ME MARGARET based on the classic Judy Blume novel, is one such release. Now I read in school another Blume classic, remembering it fondly enough. ARE YOU THERE GOD? ITS ME MARGARET however holds a special place in the hearts and minds of a generation. That generation was my parents one. A generation of Boomers, living every day with the hangover of the sexual revolution, excess and recess and all in between. Restricted from being adapted for over 50 years, its release will finally allow that generation to connect to an imagined past.

11-year-old Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson) returns from summer camp to a change. She is moving from New York City to the suburbs of New Jersey. As she arrives, the world she enters into is changing. As is her body. She is going through puberty, a new school and a new set of friends. Her mother, Barbara (Rachel McAdams), is equally struggling to adjust and her adoring grandmother, Sylvia (Kathy Bates), is equally at sea without her loved only granddaughter. Add to that the messy situation with being the offspring of a Christian mother an Jewish Father but aligned to neither.

Can we take a moment please to acknowledge that the choice to make a film like this, though once not so, is brave. James L. Brooks (producer) and Kelly Fremon Craig (director), give it there all to get this over the line. We live in a time of fear. Of accepted ignorance. Of ramped up, cashing in of truth. ARE YOU THERE GOD? ITS ME MARGARET is frank (in a soft way), honest, touching film. Its brightened by the mise en scene, which is excellent and the production designer should be rewarded with a nomination for sure. It can sometimes be a little ham fisted in its approach but never in a way that is obtuse. The points of notes for me were the skill in the translating of the novel. The script by Craig, never shifts focus from a young adults view point.

The film has a bunch of extras that are studio fare. This means you will likely hear the dross of people talking about their love of the novel and why they made the film (you do). But actually there is important points raised about the films discussion on age, puberty, womanhood and religion. As a converted Catholic from a Jewish, Christian, Marxist background, I appreciated its honesty. Maybe many others will. Though I imagine some will not!