A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Film: A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Stars: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Storm Reid, Levi Miller, Deric McCabe, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Director: Ava DuVernay
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

I think A Wrinkle in Time was the first book ever that I had to read twice in a row not because I loved it so much, but because I didn't really get it.  The book, complicated and scientific in ways that were difficult for me to grasp, was the first novel I read with its own mythology, its own terminology.  It is also, even as an adult, a book that's hard to imagine as an actual film, which is why when Disney decided to tackle the project, I was skeptical.  Even in the hands of someone as accomplished as Ava DuVernay, it felt like a story that would be too cerebral, too introverted and too inward to ever pop on the screen.  Then again, "impossible" novels are made into classic movies all-the-time.  One of my favorite pictures ever is The Hours, and I read that book thinking how preposterous it was that it could ever be made into a movie...except of course it had.  So I went to A Wrinkle in Time with childhood fancy in my eyes but an adult's skepticism about what this book could turn into onscreen.

(Spoilers Ahead) And I left disappointed that my childhood's vision of the book would only be brought to life in a surface-level way, my adult side winning the day on this one.  The film centers around Meg (Reid), a bright young girl haunted by her father's (Pine) disappearance, with many of her fellow classmates thinking that he simply ran away from their family, and mocking her incessantly for it.  She lives with her brother Charles Wallace (McCabe), an unusually bright young boy who seems to have some issues with social cues, and doesn't care for most of the people his age.  One day three magical women (played by Winfrey, Witherspoon, and Kaling) take them across the universe in pursuit of their father, and along the way they find out things about themselves.

This is standard-plate stuff for a children's movie, and if that were simply where we were going, it'd probably work.  We have three talented actresses taking on the main roles, and Witherspoon in particular (on such a role lately!) is a hoot as the Mrs. Whatsit, the newest celestial being who frequently becomes impatient with our chief protagonist Meg.  However, the movie's mythology appers too thick to come across in less than two hours, and as a result DuVernay has to sacrifice something.  The problem is she doesn't simplify the plot as a way of letting us connect with the characters, but instead she diverts away from our child performers, giving us cardboard cutouts of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin (Miller).

It feels hard to pick on younger actors in such a way, but all three struggle onscreen.  We leave the theater with just a razor-thin understanding of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin, with their problems all coming back to relationships with family members, but little insight into who they are as human beings.  Reid, in particular, seems to rely more upon frustrated glances and stilted line readings than actually instilling something into her character.  This is partially the fault of Jennifer Lee & Jeff Stockwell, the screenwriters, who don't give Meg much character aside from hero-in-training.  There's a scene late in the film where Meg's name is listed alongside luminaries like Gandhi & Einstein, but we still don't know how simple Meg should possibly be grouped with such people, even though she supposedly just saved the world (weirdly, this is where DuVernay skimps the most on mythology-building).  Without a connection to the younger characters (whom I really loved as a kid as I read all of L'Engle's Time Quintet once I could understand the books), the film itself is just a disconnected series of shots, a muddled mess that movie star charisma can't even save.  It pains me to give it such a low score, but childhood nostalgia & pretty art direction don't make a movie watchable, and you can't be excused for having the budget to cast Witherspoon, Winfrey, and Kaling to try and liven up a dud.  DuVernay has made great movies before, and she likely will again, but this is a stinker.