Adaptation of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ means well but is too messy
Prior to a recent advanced screening of the live-action Disney film “A Wrinkle in Time,” a recorded message from Ava DuVernay was shown to the audience.
In it, the director of the 2013 Academy Award-nominated historical drama “Selma” and the 2016 documentary “Thirteenth,” both of which deal with racial issues, spoke about how she was interested in making something different and about how she hoped “A Wrinkle in Time” would appeal to a 12-year-old, as well as to the 12-year-old in all of us.
Well, this movie certainly is nothing like “Selma.” But while it may appeal to those 12 and under — the adaptation of the 1962 Newbery Medal-winning novel by Madeleine L’Engle is chock full of bright, shiny, digitally created imagery and boasts big, broad and easy-to-digest lessons — it isn’t too likely to do much for adults.
It is an awkward, laboring affair that — sticking with the time theme — feels longer than its lessthan-two-hour runtime.
Sorry to say, it’s just not enough that Oprah Winfrey is in it.
We first meet the brilliant Mr. Murry (the talented Chris Pine of the new “Star Trek” movies, who makes an impression in relatively little screen time) having quality daddy-daughter time with his little girl, Meg (Lyric Wilson, in this early scene). Mr. Murry has his head in the stars — his dream is to “shake hands with the universe” — and he teaches his enthusiastic, bespectacled offspring about some big concepts regarding space and time.
Mr. Murry and wife Mrs. Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw of “Concussion”) are about to adopt a young
boy, so they make it clear to Meg she always will be loved, even when she can’t feel it.
Four years later, Meg (now played by Storm Reid) is trying to cling to that message. Her father, you see, disappeared not long after the adoption of Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe). The good news is the children are protective of one another, especially he of her, Meg having grown into an outcast at school.
Perpetually sad about dad, she is picked on by mean kids, one of whom says she wishes Meg had disappeared. Not surprisingly, Meg gets in a confrontation on
the school playground that puts her in hot water.
Charles Wallace, too, is a bit of an odd bird — he overhears a couple of teachers saying as much — but he’s a happy boy and extremely smart.
And, unbeknownst to his sister and mother, Charles Wallace has made some otherworldly friends: Reese Witherspoon’s Mrs. Whatsit, Mindy Kaling’s Mrs. Who and Winfrey’s Mrs. Which. Their introduction, beginning with Witherspoon’s social graces-defying character, is where “A Wrinkle in Time” starts to show its distractingly weird side. (In an early scene, Mrs. Whatsit flits around in the Murry living room talking about how brilliant Charles Wallace is in full view of an appropriately confused and uncomfortable Mrs. Murry.)
To make a long story short, the two Murry children, and a classmate of Meg’s who doesn’t see her as a weirdo, Levi Miller’s Calvin, follow the oddly outfitted intergalactic women — Winfrey’s glammed-out look, especially, is a lot to take in — to strange faraway worlds in search of Mr. Murry. Along the way, they will encounter the benevolent Happy Medium (a reasonably fun Zach Galifianakis) and the Man With the Red Eyes (Michael Pena), a representation of a growing darkness — “the It,” a change from “the Black Thing” in the book — that is a threat to everything, earth included.
Adapted by Jennifer Lee (“Frozen”) and Jeff Stockwell (“Bridge to Terabithia”), “A Wrinkle in Time,” ultimately, is about Meg learning to believe in herself. That’s all well and good, but it’s done with such stunning imprecision.
And Calvin, portrayed competently by Miller, never feels like he fits into the story, other than to give Meg validation that, you know, she is pretty cool. (Those who haven’t read the novel may even suspect the character is an invention for the movie, but Calvin is in L’Engle’s beloved book.)
While not terrific, Reid (“A Happening of Monumental Proportions”) is likeable while succeeding in conveying the passiveness of Meg. McCabe is, distractingly, the polar opposite as Charles Wallace, the
boy never quite feeling like a real boy. Then again, he has nothing on the weirdos played by Winfrey, who is fine but not interesting; Kaling, hamstrung by the fact Mrs. Who primarily speaks in historical quotes; and Witherspoon, who gets some mileage out of Mrs. Whatsit’s lack of confidence in Meg, which she openly expresses to Charles Wallace in full view of Meg.
That the women somehow feel both unnecessary while on screen and causing a void when they’re off it is one of the problems with DuVernay’s direction. A clear talent — again, the Civil Rights drama “Selma” is a terrific effort — she seems wrong for this project.
DuVernay — the creator of the series “Queen Sugar,” which airs on the Oprah Winfrey Network and counts the media giant as one of its executive producers — is never able to give L’Engle’s tale the narrative push it needs. Instead, she mainly oversees one effects-laden sequence after another. Sure, it’s cool when Mrs. Whatits changes into a magical winged creature and soars through the air with the children on her back, but that kind of thing alone does not good a movie make.
Again, this movie’s really for kids, although it should be noted that the movie does get surprisingly frightening in its climactic stretch, another questionable choice by its creative forces.
So if you have young ones clamoring to see “A Wrinkle in Time,” and they’re not easily terrified, by all means, take them; it is not without its good qualities. Just don’t expect it to be time you savor.