Based on Madeleine L’Engle’s book, “A Wrinkle in Time,” the newest film version under director Ava DuVernay has been causing a lot of excitement, with heightened expectations fueled in large part by the heat of “Black Panther.”
To be fair, this film will most likely do very well at the box office, based on the realistic expectations of a film this size. It’s a family film and it’s filled with enough pleasant surprises, which started with the casting of Oprah Winfrey as the wisest celestial being of the three who take the lead in this story. Many critics have been careful about sharing their true feelings about the film because they want to support DuVernay, and box office, i.e., money, is the only thing that Hollywood respects. White directors can have bomb after bomb and “fail up,” but people of color—especially women—are judged more harshly, and never have we been rewarded for ruining companies like so many white CEO’s have been.
From a screenwriter’s point-of-view, there are many places where there is little emotional connection, but the joyful effort is evident. That is a surprise because the screenwriter is Jennifer Lee, who penned “Frozen,” an absolutely stellar screenplay.
The story wraps around heroine Meg Murry (Storm Reid) who goes on a quest to find her missing father (Chris Pine), a brilliant scientist who disappeared four years earlier just as he discovered how to travel great distances through space via something called a tesseract.
Along with Meg is her adopted little brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), a child genius whose gifts grow after their father’s disappearance. Where Meg lacks confidence, her brother oozes it and shows his love and support for her without reservation.
The quest begins with a visit from a quirky redheaded woman named Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) at an invitation, it appears, provided by Charles. The adorable genius is the one who also encourages Meg to bring along her handsome and supportive friend Calvin (Levi Miller). To get the ball rolling, the three explore a rather creepy house, where they find Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) napping among the artfully stacked piles of books (the character speaks exclusively in
other people’s words).
Last to arrive is Mrs. Which (Winfrey, a solid casting choice), the eldest and wisest of the three deities. Charles is too young to remember their missing dad, but he’s fearless and is the first to “tesser”—exploiting a fold in the fabric of time to jump great distances—after Mrs. Which
explains the concept.
The drive in the story is the kids searching this new universe for their father, and the world they find themselves searching inside is worthwhile. The first planet is inhabited by sentient plants that levitate and speak “color” and live happily inside a vibrant world covered with emerald-green fields and crystal water. This planet is the home of Mrs. Whatsit, who makes a spectacular transformation, whisking them away on a unique kind of magic carpet ride.
Then their adventure turns dark, landing them inside an ugly place where the characters teeter on giant gemstones while a sad little hermit (Zach Galifianakis) cracks half-witted jokes. This setting isn’t a high point in the film and frankly, the character looks ridiculous. Their next stop, on Camazotz, is so energized with power that Mrs. Whatsit must leave them.
Here, again, the film flounders, and it’s storytelling structure takes a huge hit. Clearly, this land is a test and at one point on Camazotz, Meg insists that she would never dream of abandoning her brother on the planet —only, she did exactly that just a few minutes earlier, losing track of Charles while trying to outrun the evil “Black Thing.” Then Charles magically reappears at the end of the scene without bothering to explain how he got over the wall.
It seems that DuVernay and her team—which includes costume designer Paco Delgado and effects crews at ILM and MPC—tried too hard. Add in a questionable sound mix and overreliance on music that drowns out large parts of the film’s dialogue and all in, well, the film is a disappointment.
“A Wrinkle in Time” is now playing.