Author: Beth Elderkin / Source: io9
A Wrinkle in Time might be a science fiction epic that takes place across galaxies, but its story is surprisingly small. It’s about one girl learning to find herself, set against the backdrop of the entire universe.
But while the film tries to balance the personal journey of Meg Murry (Storm Reid) with director Ava DuVernay’s grand vision of the cosmos, it never quite connects.The Disney film is the latest adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic children’s novel. It stars Reid as Meg, a young woman who’s struggling with the loss of her father (Chris Pine), a brilliant scientist who went missing four years ago. Meg is bullied by other girls and gossiped about by teachers, things that infuriate her adoptive brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), who’s supposedly a genius.
Of course, everything changes when Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) arrive, revealing that they believe Meg’s father is alive and that she’s the only one who can save him. This leads to a chase across galaxies to rescue Mr. Murry, who successfully used a tesseract to “wrinkle time” and traverse galaxies in an instant. He’s being held on a planet called Camazotz, which is home to a great evil that’s slowly spreading bad vibes throughout the universe.
The best thing about this film is, of course, the visuals.
In a previous interview, DuVernay said she chose to adapt A Wrinkle in Time because she wanted to create new worlds, and that’s exactly what she did. DuVernay took the planets and stars seen in the book and made them her own, showing us places full of color, life, and beauty. Camazotz has been changed the most from the original novel, in a very unique way, and I really liked it. Unfortunately, the CGI does get noticeable at times, especially during the visit to the quartz-filled cave of the Happy Medium (Zach Galifianakis). And most of the locations in the film have already been shown in the trailers, dulling the grandeur a bit. But these are adult criticisms, and kids will surely be amazed by what’s on screen.Unfortunately, when you take away the costumes, the storms, and the sweeping shots of a giant lettuce leaf floating on the wind, the relatively straightforward story of A Wrinkle in Time gets lost in translation.
As I’ve discussed previously, A Wrinkle In Time is a very special book for me. I’ve read it countless times, and Meg Murry is the fictional character I most identified with growing up. However, I believe that movies should stand on their own, and you shouldn’t have to read the book to understand its adaptation. So of course, I have no problem with most of the changes writer Jennifer Lee made from the…
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