New Wrinkle

Before I talk about Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time (2018), I want to mention how much I love Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. I must have read it when I was 12 or 13, and I remember it well - it really spoke to the bookish, SF loving kid I was (and mostly still am). I had very similar feelings about the movie.

It stars 15-year-old Storm Reid, as Meg Murray, a bookish girl of mixed race. Her father, Chris Pine, was a brilliant astrophysicist who nurtured her love of science, but had disappeared about a year ago. This left her with her mother, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, a brilliant microbiologist, and her odd (but brilliant) younger brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe). Because of her missing father, Meg is bullied at school. Charles Wallace stands up for her, but since he is weird, that only makes things worse. But popular cute guy Calvin (Levi Miller) befriends her, because she seems interesting.

One night, a strange, freaky woman who calls herself Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) appears in Meg’s house. Although Charles Wallace claims he invited her, they throw her out. The next day, Charles Wallace takes Meg and Calvin to a spooky house, where a witch lives - no, correction, a Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling). Yes, there is a short “Who’s on first?” routine. Mrs. Who speaks only in quotations - I particularly like “The foot feels the foot when it steps on the ground” that she misattributes to the Buddha.

Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which introduce them to Mrs. Which, Oprah Winfrey, manifesting as a 20-foot tall shining being. They them all “tesser” (travel by tesseract) to the planet Uriel in search of Meg and Charles Wallace’s father.

I’ll interrupt the plot discussion to talk about the casting - a lot of ink (or electrons) has been spilled about the racial makeup of the cast. Chris Pine, European ancestry, of course, and Mbatha-Raw, African, making it natural that Reid, mixed race is cast as their daughter Meg. Charles Wallace, who is adopted is played by a boy of European ancestry. And Mrs. Who, Whatsit, and Which are European, Indian, and African ancestry. In my opinion, this is fine. I had no picture in my mind about the race of Meg or her family. (Maybe a redhead? Don’t know if that’s in the book or just me.) And the Mrs. are, of course, extradimensional beings, so human races are bit beside the point. And Reid makes a great Meg, radiating sorrow, confusion, and intelligence, as well as love for her family and friends. The only cast member I found less than exciting was Levi Miller, the “normal” boy who shows up to be potential romantic interest. And he’s supposed to be kind of dull, I think.

Anyways, we get to go to beautiful planets and ride on plant-based dragons (kinda) and find the evil behind the plot - Camazotz, a planet sized mind with nothing but ego, selfishness, and conformity as a soul. It has trapped Dr. Murray, and will tempt Charles Wallace, using his unique genius as a weakness. But it all turns out fine.

The ending solidified my feelings about this movie. When the family comes back together, it is filmed as epic - a giant, lens-flaring, transcendent event. The film technique is somewhat naive (the special effects throughout are lovely, but maybe not as sophisticated as some movies), but it’s interesting that this event, an emotional climax, is treated like a crazy action scene might be in another movie. Maybe this is childish, but it should be a kid’s movie. As an adult kid, I liked it.