A Wrinkle in Time

2003: Madeleine L'Engle's novel A Wrinkle in Time debuts as a TV movie in Canada and in the States the following year. It was instantly forgotten by all.

Present day. The iconic story is ready for its cinematic life. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie is visually delightful but it has some logical issues.

It was a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry (Storm Reid) can't stop thinking about her scientist father, Alex (Chris Pine). It's been four years since he vanished while studying instantaneous interstellar travel via Tesseract. Her adopted brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), is unnaturally smart and prone to befriending strange people. One of them is Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), who tells the kids that their father is out there. Meg's classmate Calvin O'Keefe (Levi Miller) visits them just as they meet Mrs. Who (Mindy Kalling) and Mrs Which (Oprah Winfrey). The three Mrs. are astral travelers who fold space and take the kids to another planet.

Yes, Dr. Murry discovered the ability to "tesser" through space. But he was seized by "IT," not the clown, but an evil black mass. IT is located on the planet Camazotz. The kids have to go there to extract Dr. Murry. But IT won't give up without a fight and the kids will have to do it alone.

Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell's screenplay does its best to realize the deeply philosophical book. While its basic story is understandable, there's a few logical issues here. A big one is that Charles Wallace turns evil because he saw through an illusion. How does that work? Apparently, he was hypnotized by IT's servant Red (Michael Pena), but it should've been clearer. The nature of Camazotz, and that name itself, were also bewildering. Calvin's issues with his abusive father is never resolved after it appears once in an exposition vision. It also takes a while to get going and is over somewhat quickly.

The kids have definite screen presence. McCabe is especially good at playing Charles Wallace's unnatural smartness and his brainwashed snide self. Reid makes for a good heroine who finds her confidence. Miller made for a good, loyal friend as  Calvin. Rowan Blanchard makes the most of her limited screentime as Meg's mean girl arch-nemesis, Veronica. The three Mrs. were perfectly eccentric characters.

There's much to admire with the visuals. There's an eclectic display of colorful alien worlds, creatures and costumes on screen. Tobias A. Schliessler's cinematography displays them perfectly. It almost felt like a live-action Ghibli film; in fact, a Ghibli film of this might be a good fit. Spencer Averick's editing had one glaring flaw early on: when the kids go to meet Mrs. Who, they're walking a dog. When they enter her house, the dog is absent (but turns up later). Ramin Djawadi's score is good, but you'll likely remember the songs more than the score.

A Wrinkle in Time is not a perfect family film but it's watchable. You might have to fill in a few logical gaps yourself but it's worth the astro trip. At least on a matinee budget on flatscreen. Perhaps someone can figure out what to do for the next film version by watching this. It's certainly more memorable than the TV movie.