A Wrinkle in Time

Score:  C+

Directed by Ava DuVernay
Starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Storm Reid
Running time:  109 minutes
Rated PG

Long Story Short:  An acclaimed filmmaker steps out of her comfort zone to bring a classic children's story to the big screen in A Wrinkle in Time.  It features big stars Oprah, Reese Witherspoon and others, while also presenting something new for the family audience and emphasizing contemporary themes.  But it's ultimately still too much of the modern, standard film style, which is fatally constraining to the wondrous tone and magic of the original story.


Meg Murry (Reid) is a lonely girl, adrift despite the presence of an adoring younger brother, Charles Wallace (McCabe), due to the mysterious disappearance of her father four years ago.  Her parents were groundbreaking astrophysicists, inspirations to their children but not taken seriously by the world.  One day, as Meg introduces her family to a rare new friend, Calvin (Miller), a strange woman suddenly appears in the yard.  The woman - calling herself Mrs. Whatsit (Witherspoon) - seems to know about Meg's father, and offers to take Meg, Charles, and Calvin to find him, along with two other beings, Mrs. Who (Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Winfrey).  By using a tesser, or a "wrinkle" in space-time, the group travels to distant, exotic new worlds.  As amazing as this new universe of possibilities may be, however, Meg and company soon discover that the key to finding and saving her father will depend on their own courage and resourcefulness.

A Wrinkle in Time has quite a few big stars, although it relies heavily on its mostly unknown, younger actors.  Storm Reid is the lead as young Meg Murry, and she does a decent though underwhelming job.  Storm is a composed and consistent performer, but she is unable to truly bring Meg to life, to summon the spark that makes her such a compelling character on the page.  The set up is fine early on, when the story introduces Meg as a distressed, lost young girl in everyday life, but the passion of the character - at times productive and at others harmful - just doesn't come through once they leave Earth behind.  Levi Miller as Calvin O'Keefe is similarly average and uninspiring, but Deric McCabe  is significantly better as precocious (although more than that) young Charles Wallace, attempting to carry the torch of adventure and whimsy that is lacking in others.  Stars Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling bring their distinctive presences to bear for the film - but little else.  Not only does the script miss the true, unique essences of the Mrs.s, but the actresses themselves play them fairly generically (if also with earnest effort).  Chris Pine, as Meg's father, gets to do a lot of emotion-filled staring but little else, and there are a few other familiar faces with smaller roles, too.

A Wrinkle in Time is a sincere effort to bring a classic children's fantasy to the big screen, one that is well-made in some ways but ultimately misses the mark in the big picture.  To start, if you're not familiar with the story, it's important to understand that it is a pretty strange tale.  The original, the book, is even more so, and the movie's attempts to standardize and explain it is one of its biggest failures.  To me, the warm, mysterious tone of the story, and its unique, flawed, compelling characters are the great strengths of the book.  DuVernay - a great filmmaker (Selma, 13th) - seems most attracted to emphasizing the ideas of diversity, female empowerment, and scientific curiosity.  All of those things are great, but DuVernay sanitizes the story and fantasy around it - by over explaining some things, and making major (often ill-advised) deviations from the original - to make it easily digestible for the 21st century family audience.  I wish that she (or perhaps Disney?) had just trusted more to the source material, and in doing so, trust in the audiences - young and old alike - to use their imaginations, to find those same ideas she wanted to emphasize, without hitting us over the head with them.  I don't mean to say this film is entirely bad.  The production values are pretty good, with some clever (if not visionary) interpretations of some of the fantastical elements.  Although the performances are not great, and the script a bit clunky, there is a genuine, good faith effort behind it which makes it watchable.

***

A Wrinkle in Time is a well-intentioned, decent film, but one that ultimately proves the power of another medium - books - and how tricky it can be to translate stories both by format and style.  As is probably obvious from my review, I did go back and re-read the story just before seeing the film.  It really does bring the old cliche to life in transporting you, the reader, to another world; I strongly suggest it for children (for age suggestions, you should look elsewhere), and even adults should find it a pleasant return to younger days.  I even more strongly recommend reading it before seeing the film, if you intend to do so.  Admittedly, I'm not sure a faithful film version of A Wrinkle in Time that captures the essence of the story is even possible.  If it is, I think it would be something much different than what we are used to seeing on a screen of any kind.  But I also think that kind of bold, inventive filmmaking is something that would benefit us all.  For now, thanks for bringing the story back to our attention, DuVernay et. al.; but the book remains by far the best choice.




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