I don’t watch kid movies anymore. I used to, but as I’m getting older, and I have less time until I reach the finish line, things have to get cut out of the schedule regardless of how objectively good it is. I’m sure that I read Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, but if my life depended on it, I could not tell you anything about that world. I vaguely remember fundamentalist Christians deriding her, but even that memory is hazy. So I have no interest in any film adaptation of that book. I’ve been an Ava DuVernay fan long before Selma and am happy for her success although I secretly hope that she pulls a Jon Favreau and returns to her smaller scale film early days and makes her version of Chef. If DuVernay were directing the adaptation of a phone book, I would pay to watch it in theaters so I saw A Wrinkle In Time during opening weekend.
A Wrinkle In Time is primarily focused on Meg, who has had a rough time since her father disappeared. She is concerned that he actually left the family, and it wasn’t a work accident, but her adopted, little brother, Charles Wallace, is an enthusiastic and open child with undying hope, who introduces her to three mysterious women who decide to help them. Calvin, a classmate with a crush on Meg, joins them. The film is divided into three parts: establishing the world that we are familiar with, learning about and entering the fantastic broader world, which in turn reveals more about the familiar one, and resolving the problems of both worlds so they can return home.
I think that the key to enjoying A Wrinkle In Time is to see it with others who are not dead inside (try to be like Charles Wallace). Pick up on their emotional cues and try to suspend disbelief. I’m definitely more of a Meg. It took me a long time to get my bearings and was suspicious of everything until the mention of warriors late in the second third. I understand the rules of fighting and surviving evil more than being filled with wonder. Wonder makes me suspicious, and I never fully understood the rules of this universe. Thinking is space travel? All planets have oxygen! Where are these three chicks from? How did they meet or are they related? How is mom always home and financially supporting them? Oh we’re just flying on people’s backs now. Fooling around with your little friends and almost got yourself killed. I’m uncertain whether or not this is A Wrinkle In Time’s fault or mine. Is this a Mark 10:15 problem? “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
It is not a criticism of the acting, which is great, but the adult cast is so famous, and I watch so many movies that I never once thought of them by their character names. Chris Pine plays the father, and I joked to myself, “Look for him in Themyscira! It figures that Capt James T. Kirk finally settles down, but he can’t stay home. He better not be messing around on Belle.” Mellie, that’s it!?! Oprah’s character, Mrs. Which, is so similar to Oprah and uses the same aphorisms that they could have just called the character Oprah, and I would not bat an eyelash. It may have actually sped up my adjustment to this universe. Even though I’m not an Oprah fan, I’m also not instinctually opposed to her like some people so if you don’t like the way that she approaches spirituality and self-improvement, you probably should skip A Wrinkle In Time.
Once I gave up trying to adjust to A Wrinkle In Time’s universe and superimposed Stephen King’s It on the narrative (with rated PG scares), I was finally able to connect to the movie. In many ways, the denouement of this film is superior to the end of the first part of the most recent film adaptation of It and has a similar explanation of the villain’s makeup as Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which makes it more faithful to King’s original vision for It’s origins without the prurient primal survival bonding. It is a far less pretentious and enjoyable Interstellar. I have not seen such a beautiful portrayal of the sibling bond since Firefly/Serenity. The sibling dynamic could have been the only plot in the entire film, and I would have been satisfied. The idea of It inflicting less homicidal harm, specifically as a mean girl and in the systematic forms of misogynoir faced by young girls in school, but still having a damaging impact on the universe is a concept that resonates and has an easier solution: love in the midst of our “beautiful faults.”
Meg’s super power is feasible, but still rare. She never lets go of the people that she loves regardless of whether or not she is in danger. She defiantly refuses to forget them and choose her well being over theirs. She consistently rejects adult caution and compromise in the face of evil and ultimately casts off the societal acceptable version of herself: early sexualization, straight hair, apathetic. It is less important to seem well adjusted than it is to never cede any ground when facing evil. By saving others, she learns to embrace who she is and saves herself.
I have a rule. I would rather that a movie be uneven, but has a solid ending than be a great movie, but the ending is meh. While it may struggle to reach adult viewers like me who have more conventional sci-fi expectations, ultimately A Wrinkle In Time definitely knows where it is going and will leave audiences feeling empowered that they can save the universe by feeling as if everything matters. It also raps the knuckles of the adults in the audience for failing to recognize that career and personal ambitions do not excuse you from your obligations to be there for your kids.
A Wrinkle In Time is a kid’s movie, and if that isn’t your thing, then skip it. I have no idea if it is an effective adaptation of the original source material. As a film, it is an ambitious movie that mirrors Meg’s journey: it gains confidence and clarity as time passes then ends triumphant in its ability to make a difference in the universe.