Review of A Wrinkle in Time (2018) by Connor S — 28 Mar 2018

Adapting a book into a movie is a thankless job. Choosing which details to include, and how to translate the text into film can go wrong in so many ways. Purists will pounce, often rightly, if the movie fails to stay true to the book. This is the crux A Wrinkle in Time finds itself in, and although it has the ingredients for a great movie, the best it ends up being is a good enough movie.

People remember the sense of wonder and imagination the novel inspired in them the most, so naturally, that area is A Wrinkle in Time's strongest suit. Director Ava DuVernay does a commendable job visualizing the majestic worlds of the book. While each scene is shot in a real environment, like the redwood forests of California, the more fantastical elements are recreated through CGI. The CGI blends in perfectly with the live action. Unfortunately, it's also up to the audience to imagine where the characters are, as the editing sometimes loses track of them. On a more subtle level, the costume and makeup design convey the otherworldly nature of the adult characters by changing ever so slightly as the movie goes on. What really impressed me, however, was how the characters are framed. Instinctively, you can tell how they are feeling or whether they are good or bad based on how they're positioned in relation to the camera.

Although the movie does a good job adapting that wonder, it's attempt at adapting the story itself is a little more mixed. Personally, I thought the book's dialogue was clunky, particularly in the beginning. For the most part, the script updates the 50 year old dialogue, so the characters speak more like modern audiences. Granted, Charles Wallace still gets called Charles Wallace every single time another character addresses him, but what are you going to do about that? The beginning also spends more time depicting the lives of the Murray family and explores their characters, which makes the decision to cut out Aunt Beast's scene later in the film so puzzling. Given that A Wrinkle in Time has trouble pinning down its pacing for most of the movie, it makes sense to maintain the climaxes' momentum by streamlining it into a single scene, but in doing so, the movie loses a key opportunity to delve into its characters and make their story arcs resonate with the audience. It doesn't help that the themes are sanitized of their religious undertones. On the other hand, the message of diversity that takes their place is laudable. Which is a shame, because DuVernay is a talented director, and Storm Reid shows potential as a child actor. Ultimately, though, A Wrinkle in Time is an OK movie when it could have been a great one.