Maris Kreizman is Happy to Recommend the Screen Version of Rufi Thorpe’s Wonderful Novel
The most common book recommendation request I get is from readers who want their literary fiction with a touch of sunshine: “Give me something that’s really well written but that won’t send me into a depression spiral.” It seems like everyone wants to read something smart but not too dark, real but not overwhelming. My go-to response has been Rufi Thorpe’s 2024 novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles. It’s stunningly written but fun, deeply serious about feminism and capitalism and the realities of parenthood in America, but still hopeful.
Which is why I have been so pleased to see that David E. Kelley’s adaptation of the book for his Apple TV series is tonally faithful to the source material. It gets the details right, from the use of Robyn’s “Blow My Mind” as the opening song, which the Swedish pop star reenvisioned after the birth of her son, to the vivid colors of the set and costume design. If new motherhood is nothing if not extremely difficult under the best of circumstances and could be made to look drab or dull, here, visually, it’s also joyful and mind-expanding.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is the story of college freshman and aspiring writer Margo (Elle Fanning) who gets knocked up by her English professor (Michael Angarano) and decides to drop out and keep the baby. This setup could be cliche territory, but not in this telling. That’s mostly due to Margo’s wit and the colorful people in her life.
Margo’s parents, Shyanne and Jinx (Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman) are both larger-than-life personalities who’ve made more than their fair share of mistakes but keep trying as best they can. There’s also Margo’s roommate Susie (Thaddea Graham), a delightfully nerdy cosplayer who turns out to be the most steadfast support-giver in Margo’s life. And then there’s HungryGhost, Margo’s extraterrestrial alter ego on Only Fans who gives Margo a (lucrative) creative outlet that allows her to work from home, and more importantly, to dream.
It’s lovely how the words in the book get translated into action on the screen. This is what a good adaptation is supposed to do!
The show uses voiceover sparingly, which is a real feat given how luminous Margo’s narration is in Rufi Thorpe’s prose. A lesser show would simply rely on the voice of Margo to tell the story, but this adaptation conveys it instead. Take this line from the novel, which is not repeated in the TV show but is central to the way the show works:
Love was not something, I realized, that came to you from outside. I had always thought that love was supposed to come from other people, and somehow, I was failing to catch the crumbs of it, failing to eat them, and I went around belly empty and desperate. I didn’t know the love was supposed to come from within me, and that as long as I loved others, the strength and warmth of that love would fill me, make me strong.
It’s lovely how the words in the book get translated into action on the screen. This is what a good adaptation is supposed to do! It helps that the cast is charming as hell. Nick Offerman is a standout as a former pro-wrestler and recovering addict whose body is ruined from a career of taking too many hits, but who wants to really be there for the daughter whom he has long neglected. Michelle Pfeiffer is also phenomenal as a former bad girl who’s become status obsessed and hopes to marry a painfully square youth minister (Greg Kinnear) but can’t quite get rid of her hard edges.
If, in my last column, I bemoaned that the casting of Nicole Kidman as Scarpetta in the new series based on the Patricia Cornwell books is a prime example of hot-washing, then here, Kidman fits in much better as formidable wrestler-turned-formidable-lawyer, Lace. She still looks hot, of course, but in a way that makes sense in the world of the show.
The show is at its most thrilling when we get to see Margo’s artistic vision for her Only Fans, described beautifully in the book, come to life in the show. With the help of Jinx and Susie and hilarious elder OnlyFans stars KC and Rose (Rico Nasty and Lindsey Normington) Margo builds a sci-fi fantasy world that is both beautifully constructed and narratively compelling even while its primary function is to sell sex, or the idea of sex.
David E. Kelley’s most interesting decision is to forgo a subplot from the book that introduces a love interest for Margo, which is perhaps one of the first times an adaptation has chosen to quash a romance for the main character. But it gives the series the room to tell a love story that’s simply about family and chosen family, which is plenty. And I suppose it leaves room for more to come.
The series was recently renewed for a second season. I hope it goes the way of The Leftovers, which thrived when it outgrew its source material from Tom Perrotta’s novel, rather than The Handmaid’s Tale, which faltered when it moved beyond Margaret Atwood’s imagining. Even as I finished the last pages of the book I felt wistful about not knowing more about Margo’s future.