A Wrinkle in Time

So I never read A Wrinkle In Time, but the minute I saw the trailer, I was pretty interested. I know A Wrinkle in Time more by reputation and even though everything is being turned into a movie, I have no problem with that. For every bad The Hobbit, we get a Lord of the Rings and I know there will be bad adaptations but I'm always open for writers and directors to try and put great works of art into movie form... I just don't really know if this was the best way to do it.

A Wrinkle in Time follows the story of Meg (played by Storm Reid). She is a young girl who for the past four years has been working through the disappearance of her father (played by Chris Pine). She acts out, she's getting bullied, Meg is not having a good time at school. She has a loving mother (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who side note was really under utilized for this film) and a gifted younger brother by the name of Charles Wallace (played by Deric McCabe).

And something I will say to start off with is that the set up for this movie both has some really good things and some kind of boring things. It's a good set up of most of the characters, especially Meg. It creates the conflict that she needs to overcome, being bullied and dealing with the loss of her father. And it introduces the Misses (played by Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Oprah Winfery.

But at the same time, the movie does a pretty mediocre job at contextualizing these kids and making them feel realistic. Now part of that is inherent in the plot. Charles Wallace is a weird kid, that's just how he's written. But then they introduce another kid by the name of Calvin (played by Levi Miller) and not only is he thrown into the plot very randomly, he never really feels like a real kid to me. Storm Reid gives a really good performance as Meg and I'm looking forward to seeing her work in the future, but whether its the kids other kids bullying her for essentially having a dead parent, or the adults (teachers, etc) who are telling her to basically get over that dead parent, it just feels weird. I know bullying exists and kids can be cruel, but do kids really make fun of other kids because their parents are dead? That seemed overly cruel just for the sake of being hyperbolic.

And then we're introduced to the Misses, and they enter the other dimensions and things get kind of trippy and odd. However, I never feel like the worlds they go into are ever properly explained or explored to the way they really could be. I'm still not totally sure what Oprah Winfrey is and if they're really powerful beings why they depend so much on the actions of a little girl.

And Meg, while she has some moments of wonderment or confusion, never really gets to the level of confusion or wonderment that I in the audience am at so it's hard to connect with where I'm supposed to be through the main character.

But regardless, the Misses set up the plot. They know that Meg's father traveled through space to get to the other dimensions and he's in trouble. They take Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin with them to find him and save him from a dark power called The It.

Pretty straight forward plot. There's a goal, the characters need to band together to achieve that goal.

What follows is a really cerebral road trip movie through a much of really unexplained but nonetheless fantastical worlds, and trippy journeying. All towards the plot goal of finding the father, but it also is a personal journey for Meg to discover her self worth and love who she is.

And before I say anything else, I shouldn't need to put this disclaimer, but that is a good thing! My critique of this movie is not about the message of loving ones self and being a good person towards others. It's more the methods by which they navigate the plot and that message.

From what I can ascertain from what I've heard about the book and the story displayed through this movie is that that abstract and cerebral style is exactly the point. This is a really out of the box story with abstract ideas. There is nothing wrong with that. I think we should be encouraging different narrative styles. But the one thing I think Ava Duvernay could have done better with this movie is capture that same cerebralness but ground the movie a little more for the audience to grasp it easier. That's what happens with adaptation, it needs to be interpreted differently to fit a visual medium so it can be digested easier and provide a better experience.

And the truth is nobody is going to be truly happy with adaptation. Whatever you change is going to make the purists of the book angry and whatever you keep the same isn't going to 100% tangible for people who haven't read the book. But that shouldn't be the purpose of the movie, to please the fans or the new comers, it should be to just make a good film.

Quick run down of the things I liked about the film. Like I said, I liked Storm Reid in this role. I think she's a good actress. I like Chris Pine, especially moments where he interacts with Storm Reid and they're talking about the metaphysics of the whole thing. While it's confusing as hell, it's kind of fun, though never really mentioned again. I think while the Misses were confusing in their purpose, it seems like Winfrey, Kaling and Witherspoon had fun with the roles. The movie is visually intriguing.

Quick run down of things I didn't really like. The little kid was annoying. The kid played by Levi Miller was kind of weird. Michael Pena was under utilized in this movie. Zach Galifinakis...

Is A Wrinkle in Time a bad movie? No. I think there are things that some people will be able to pull from it. It does have a good message for young kids about accepting who you are and being the good you see in the world. There's a lot of diversity in it providing an example for women and people of color, all good things. But I also don't think it's some kind of hidden master piece that the patriarchy or the cynics are trying to hide with poor reviews and criticism.

I went into this movie knowing that it wasn't well received by critics or by the box office and I went in with low expectations. I won't say the result was better than I expected, I just don't think the movie was horrible but I also don't think it was that great. It was fine.

Overall, I think A Wrinkle in Time is a great looking movie that tried to promote a good message but gets pulled back in quality due to a pretty aimless plot and poorly developed relationships that get overshadowed by the spectacle that is the visuals and cerebral nature of the movie.

But what did you think. I tried to limit as much reference to the book as I could in this review because I haven't read it but how does it compare to the movie? Is it a good adaptation? Is the book as much of a trip as the movie? What do you think worked and what could have been done differently? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, see you next time!