Review of A Wrinkle in Time (2018) by Wiscojoe — 12 Mar 2018

The road to mediocre movies is paved with good intentions. Ava DuVernay is a master publicist and one of Hollywood’s reigning social media mavens, so it’s not surprising that her take on “A Wrinkle in Time” plays like a live-action adaptation of your cool aunt’s Instagram account.

It’s an intermittent and repetitive scroll through a series of photoshopped images, overly-obvious inspirational quotes, celebrity fashion spreads, new-agey pseudo-science, self-help clichés, “please like me” generalities, and smarmy "haters gonna hate" defensive posturing.

Just when you’re annoyed or bored enough to unfollow, you get sucked back in with some surprisingly cool content, like a moment of pure artistry, a genuinely inspiring Oprah-branded “Aha!” moment, or a dreamy new Sade song.

The movie does an adequate job of dutifully hitting the main plot points of the novel, but it’s treatment of the story’s complex themes is only skin deep. Tellingly, the three Mrs. W’s have been translated here into a trio of intergalactic glamour-pusses, characterized primarily by their outward appearance, costume changes, and connection to pop culture.

Such materialism is perhaps necessary when translating a largely abstract novel to the screen, but when overdone, as is the case here, it becomes distracting rather than illuminating. I’d recommend this movie for DuVernay or Disney diehards and tweens in desperate need of a crash course in standard self-esteem and lowest-common-denominator courage.

For everyone else, skip the movie and read the book. Your own imagination will surely create something better. (And you can always go ahead and download that new Sade song.