A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Directed by: Ava DuVernay | 109 minutes | adventure, family | Actors: Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Levi Miller, Deric McCabe, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Peña, André Holland, Rowan Blanchard, Bellamy Young, David Oyelowo

A lot was expected from Disney’s film adaptation of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ (2018), the science fantasy novel by Madeleine L’Engle from 1962, which is particularly known in the US as a classic. But the film adaptation by Ava DuVernay (‘Selma ‘, 2014) didn’t quite turn out as expected (and hoped). A lot of money was thrown into it – the total budget for production, marketing and promotion is estimated at about 250 million dollars – and with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine and Zack Galifianakis quite a few big names roped in for a role in the film. But ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ did not even reach the cinemas in the Netherlands and Belgium. Due to the disappointing visitor numbers in the US and Canada, and the scathing reviews from film critics, the distributor drew its conclusions. Via Video on Demand the film can now be seen in the low countries and the public can judge for themselves whether it is right that DuVernay’s film was never shown here on the big screen. The director – for whom this is her first ‘big budget’ film – is in any case not stopped by the disappointing performance of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ from raising her ambitions even further: her next film will be like this again’ n major production, namely the superhero film ‘The New Gods’ (DC Comics).

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ revolves around thirteen-year-old Meg Murry (Storm Reid), who has struggled to connect with school and peers since the disappearance of her father Alex (Chris Pine). Alex is a well-known astrophysicist who, at the time of his mysterious disappearance, was working on a theory of interdimensional travel. People around her think Meg’s father has abandoned the family and is never coming home, but Meg, her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and their mother Kate (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) are hopeful. One evening, Charles Wallace is visited by a curious lady, the red-haired Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) who claims that the tesseract Alex developed actually worked and that it bridges the different dimensions. The next day, Charles Wallace, Meg and their friend Calvin (Levi Miller) are lured to a house where they meet another special lady, Mrs. Meet Who (Mindy Kaling), who speaks solely by quoting others. Mrs Whatsit and Mrs. Who dives later, along with the giant Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey with silver eyebrows), on in the Murry’s garden. They turn out to be space travelers and claim to have seen Alex. He turns out to have been captured by the evil IT, who plans to take over the universe. Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin are tasked with traveling via the tesseract to the planet Camazotz to save their father.

For one woman in particular, it has been her life’s work to film ‘A Wrinkle in Time’: Catherine Hand. After reading L’Engle’s book in the early 1960s, the then ten-year-old Hand wanted to write a letter to Walt Disney. She wanted to point out the story that had given her hope again, at a time when the world was turbulent. In her eyes, there was only one who could film ‘A Wrinkle in Time’. But she never sent the letter, and three years later Walt Disney died of lung cancer. Then I’ll just have to make the film myself, Hand thought, not knowing that all those years later she would still join forces with The Walt Disney Company. She was also involved in the previously released TV movie. Perhaps Hand has to accept that ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ cannot be made into a film, because both attempts are stuck in their ambitions. DuVernay pulled out all the stops to make her film adaptation as spectacular as possible, but behind the dazzling splendor of colours, the thick layer of CGI and undoubtedly good intentions, there is a lifeless core. The screenplay by Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell is at times hard to follow and is plagued with plot holes that DuVernay tries to plug with downright ugly computer-animated backgrounds and hollow phrases. The actors do their best – young Storm Reid in the lead – but cannot prevent the emotions from appearing incorruptible. The honey-sweet soundtrack only reinforces that atmosphere of insincerity even more.

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ desperately wants to ‘please’ the audience, but this only exacerbates annoyances. DuVernay overplayed her hand. There’s nothing wrong with a little ambition, of course, and the director is to be commended for daring to try a film adaptation that already seems doomed from the outset. And apart from the fact that there is now a multiculturalism central and more actors and actresses of color have been added to the cast, she has not been able to leave her mark on the story. The good intentions of those involved in this film are not in question, unfortunately Madeleine L’Engle’s novel proves once again that it does not want to be filmed.