Review of A Wrinkle in Time (2018) by David H — 14 Mar 2018

Infuriatingly, "A Wrinkle In Time" is far worse than I had steeled myself to expect based on various reviews and trailers. Granted, there are good points: excellent casting, good acting (in spite of the actors having little to work with), tactful modernization of the nearly 60 year old story, some clever original scenes, and (surprisingly) one or two well-executed scenes straight from the book.

But a terrible screenplay and atrocious editing basically ruin the film (the last scene is a glacially-paced torture of cringe-worthy treacle). They made numerous ill-considered decisions about the narrative that weaken most of the characters in ways that seemed to me completely unnecessary, and - the greatest sin of all, to my mind - they simply do not appear to have trusted the book.

And there is too much straight up exposition where one or two hints would suffice. The film's version of the story was flat... it lacked the depth, awe, reverence, humanity, compassion, and "true-ness" in the characters' reactions to the supernatural/spiritual forces they encounter that permeated L'Engle's story.

The word "universe" is thrown about constantly but instead the focus is tight and myopic; not universal at all. I'm so disappointed. I feel like it would have been better if it were not made.