Review of A Wrinkle in Time (2018) by Annie B — 04 Jul 2018

I was so very wary of watching this movie, and my instincts proved right. This movie is so far from how I envisioned the story from reading the book when it first came out - yeah, I'm that old.

Maybe how you picture "A Wrinkle in Time" depends on how old you were when you read it, and when.

This was a book of its time. Even being 8 years old, I knew that part of the shadow of darkness was communism. We had civil defense drills and a missile crises, and we all KNEW that the worst evil we could think of was having the US turn into a Soviet state. Or be like East Germany. Or China. Or Cuba.

No freedom of thought or action, a "big brother" (IT) overseeing all of us all the time, and having to comply and conform totally. And no religion allowed (we were told to bury our Bibles to hide them). So that was Camozotz for me - a world like our own - not a magic planet with tornadoes and folding-up houses - that had given in to the darkness of totalitarianism. Where you couldn't be different - have faults like Meg - or love your family - or worship a higher being. It was a scary time - could there be a Mrs. Who or Which or Whatsit to help keep away the darkness? I actually pictured part of the book in black and white - that was what television was, right? - and re-read the book again when a few years later I saw Richard Burton's movie (black & white) of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold". East Berlin = death and darkness.

So....what to make of the recent "A Wrinkle in Time" movie? It's sure pretty - and the message to be yourself and appreciate what you are because you're wonderfully unique - can't hurt. But the movie's just too bright and bouncy and fluffy - like cotton candy. The Mrs.s? In our world they were ugly witch stereotypes (to contrast to their latter gloriousness) - and you had to battle HARD and maybe suffer to fight the darkness - and it was Meg's offering of unconditional love for Charles Wallace - as awful as he was - that saved them -NOT Meg concentrating on how much she was loved - though the statement that Mrs. Whatsit didn't love her was IT's mistake.

For me, this movie ISN'T "A Wrinkle in Time" - it's a feel-good, positive message to kids movie, and an opportunity to travel the universe with some dang beautiful ladies.