A Wrinkle in Time (2018, PG)

Before seeing this movie, I dipped my toes into the reviews just enough to temper my (admittedly ludicrously-high) expectations.  The film definitely isn’t everything I would’ve wanted it to be, but it’s also better – in my opinion – than some of the rumblings made it out to be.  It’s an uneven film with some truly remarkable pieces in it; more than anything, the whole falls short of the sum of its parts.

Meg Murry, awkward tween extraordinaire, has a lot of anger to direct everywhere – at her own dissatisfaction with herself, at those who sneer at her at school, at the world that’s taken her father from her with no hint of what happened to him.  Her world changes one night, however, when Charles Wallace, her genius little brother, introduces her to his new friends, the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which.  The three ladies prove far more than meets the eye, and they take Meg and Charles Wallace – along with Calvin, another new friend – on a fantastical journey to recover their father and to battle the very forces of evil itself.

We’ll start with what didn’t work for me so I can move on to what did.  The main issues with the film seem to be structural, somehow feeling overwritten and underwritten at the same time.  Overwritten:  I lost count of how many times someone puts their hands on Meg’s shoulders to deliver an earnest heart-to-heart in close-up.  Underwritten:  rather like the first Hunger Games movie, important things from the book just seem to mosey by onscreen without the urgency or impact they had on the page.  The result is an awkward tone and a pace that often feels just a little bit off.

There are changes from the book, of course, though on the whole it is a pretty faithful adaptation.  The setting is both updated to the present day and transferred to the opposite coast, and there are a handful of plot elements that are tweaked, generally getting to the same result in a different way.  These are a mixed bag.  Some I like (the demonstration at the Happy Medium’s place of how IT impacts people,) others not so much (Camazotz is definitely at its creepiest in the scenes that follow the book, not the ones that depart from it,) but none of it makes or breaks the film in a serious way.  I’ll admit to cracking up at the moments when the production team obviously went, “Crap, there are no action scenes in this book!  Quick, have Meg and Calvin run from uprooting trees for three minutes!”

By and large, where the film succeeds is in its characters.  Over the course of this film’s production, every casting announcement either had me excited or fascinated, and pretty much every actor delivers big time.  And the script, for all its structural issues, gets most of the characters right on a fundamental level, and that was my one non-negotiable requirement for the film, so regardless of the places where it disappoints me, I have to be grateful to it for that much.  Storm Reid is a fantastic Meg – not quite as angry at the world, but clearly a ball of fears and insecurities.  She’s intelligent, stubborn, self-criticizing, and driven by love, every inch the Meg Murry that spoke to me so strongly when I was young.  And young Deric McCabe seriously impresses me as Charles Wallace.  The film manages the careful tightrope that’s so important for his character – he has to be brilliant and almost ridiculously-precocious, but at the same time, he’s also very much a little kid.  The sibling chemistry between McCabe and Reid is great.  As Calvin, Levi Miller has less to do and is more generically-written, but the film does show Calvin to be a decent guy who goes with the flow of their fantastic adventure remarkably well.

Where the adults are concerned, it’s basically nothing but knockouts.  Reese Witherspoon is such an interesting choice for Mrs. Whatsit, and while she’s not quite as prominent here as she is in the book, Witherspoon nails the “bubbly and effervescent but also very blunt and kind of rude” dynamic really well.  Mindy Kaling as Mrs. Who is another bold choice, and I have to say, she is my absolute favorite part of this movie.  I love what they do with Mrs. Who – I like that her quotes are a mix of classics and newer fare, I like that she augments her speech with evocative gestures and elaborate handshakes, and Kaling exudes such warmth in the role.  Oprah, playing Mrs. Which, is slightly playing Oprah as Mrs. Which, which works surprisingly well; tween girls could certainly do a lot worse when it comes to finding a mentor/good fairy.  Chris Pine and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are great as Mr. and Mrs. Murry – Pine gets more to do, and definitely doesn’t waste the opportunity, but Mbatha-Raw is strong enough in her limited screentime to make me want more of her.  And finally, Zach Galifinakis makes for kind of an awesome Happy Medium.  It’s a different take on the character, and not just because of the gender change, but he brings both heart and eccentricity to the part.

Warnings

Scary moments, brief violence, and thematic elements.

A Wrinkle in Time (1962)

I’ve been meaning for a while to do a nostalgia tour through some of my favorite genre fiction from my younger days, and where better to start than with Madeleine L’Engle’s time quartet?  I still have such vivid memories of my mom reading all the books in this series to me when I saw a kid, but especially this one.  As early as the first chapter, I knew there was something special here:  “Speaking of ways, pet, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”  Yes!!

Meg Murry, awkward tween extraordinaire, has a lot of anger to direct everywhere – at her own dissatisfaction with herself, at the neighbors who sneer at her little brother Charles Wallace (who they call an idiot, when he’s actually a genius,) at the world that’s taken her father from her with no hint of what happened to him.  Her world changes late one night, however, when she’s introduced to Charles Wallace’s new friends, the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which.  The three ladies prove far more than meets the eye, and they talk Meg and Charles Wallace – along with Calvin, another new friend – on a fantastical journey to recover their father and to battle the very forces of evil itself.

Reading it again as an adult, there are a few bumpy spots that don’t escape my notice.  There are points where the “lessons” are pretty fairly telegraphed, and it makes me chuckle that the ultimate force of pure evil in the universe, as expressed in this Cold War-era book, basically looks like communism.  (Yes, it’s implied that the Black Thing encourages moral ills of all sorts, but Camazotz, the most dramatic example of a planet that’s “fallen” to the Black Thing, is a classic dystopian communism metaphor packaged in a way that’s accessible for kid readers.)

But any complaints here are minor.  I love this book.  All the characters are wonderful.  I’ve written before about the deep, beautiful relationship between Meg and Charles Wallace, who both dazzle in their own ways individually and together.  I love Meg for her faults, and I love Charles Wallace for his otherworldly knowing and his manner that’s somehow totally precocious but 100% natural at the same time.  Calvin is such an earnest picture of kindness and hope, and the Mrs. W’s, L’Engle’s own weïrd sisters, are each shiningly unique, at once absurd and tremendous.  The book is littered with golden character moments, perfect lines and little details that fit each like a glove.

The characters, for me, are the main attraction here, enough that I would probably love a story about them no matter what they were doing, but in this case, they’ve got a pretty darn good plot to work with as well.  Although the whole idea of tessering is mostly similar to opening worm holes, the way it’s done and described in the book is entirely its own, and the different worlds, peoples, and creatures explored here are all really neat.  And really, the ending can’t be beat.  I love A Swiftly Tilting Planet almost as much as this one, but in the end, I always keep coming back to A Wrinkle in Time, and it’s in no small part due to the pure beauty of that ending.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids and thematic elements.

Top Five Childhood Rereads

Great books are great books, period.  I became a voracious reader at an early age, taking eager trips to the library and literally checking out as many books as I could carry.  Today, many of the novels and series I consumed are fond pieces of nostalgia, but some are every bit as enjoyable to read now as they were when I was 10, 11, or 12.  Here are five books I still love.  (Note: I didn’t start A Series of Unfortunate Events until high school, so it’s beyond the range of this post.)

 

 

The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)

 

Cards on the table – I couldn’t bring myself to see the movie in theaters.  The book is too important to me, and the film looks too wrong.  Maybe someday…  This was one of my first dystopian novels, and I was pulled entirely into its world.  I love Jonas’s messy, complicated journey, his gradual awakening to the possibilities of the extremes his gray society has pared away.  The message, that colors and snow and love are worth pain and ugliness, is gorgeous.

 

 

Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White (1996)

 

This was assigned reading in 6^th grade, but I’ve read it on my own numerous times since then (don’t bother with the sequel, though – it’s not bad, it’s just not masterful.)  Gypsy and Woodrow are such rich characters, and I adore every bit of their friendship, from the jokes to the secrets to the stories.  The story of Woodrow’s missing mother and his desire to find her fascinates me, and I like the thoughtful way the book deals with Gypsy’s feelings about her beauty.

 

 

Tangerine by Edward Bloor (1997)

 

I bought this one through a book order on a whim, and I haven’t come across anything else quite like it.  The eerie atmosphere of the town is terrific, and the darkness within Erik is startling.  Beyond that, the book is stuffed with vibrant, memorable characters and excellent dialogue.  It’s also one of the most thoughtfully diverse books I read as a kid – Paul, the protagonist, is disabled, and the multiple characters of color feel informed but not defined by their race.

 

 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)

 

So I love the entire Time Quartet, but I picked this one because my memories of first reading it are still so vivid.  It’s unapologetically smart and almost audaciously inventive, fastidiously detailed and beautifully written.  The fantasy shines, the themes are striking, and the characters are odd, rough, and wonderful.  Meg is absolutely a character I needed at that age, and Charles Wallace remains the most compellingly-written child genius I’ve ever encountered in fiction.

 

 

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1977)

 

(I just realize four of my top five are by female authors.  Awesome!)  5^th-grade reading this time.  Like Gypsy and Woodrow, Jess and Leslie’s relationship is spectacular.  I’m captivated by their time together, and of course the world they create.  In a dingy nowhere town, amidst bullies, poverty, and distant fathers, they bring the impossible to life.  What could be better than that?

Relationship Spotlight: Meg & Charles Wallace Murray (Time Quintet)

 

I was a little girl when my mother started reading A Wrinkle in Time to my brother and me.  It’s a fantastic beginning to a stellar series, and it contributed a lot to my lifelong love of reading.  Right from the start, I adored the rich characters, the sci-fi/fantasy elements, and the earnest prose.  The first thing that truly grabbed me, however, was this relationship.

 

When I think about it, it would’ve been so easy for Meg to resent Charles Wallace.  As an awkward 14-year-old, she’s a swirling bundle of insecurities.  She chafes at her clumsiness and lack of social graces, she bemoans her ungainly appearance (especially compared to her lovely mother,) and she can’t really see herself as the smart girl she is.  Given all of this, she could’ve regarded her brilliant 5-year-old brother as a reminder of her own less-than-remarkable intelligence.  Furthermore, the mere fact of Charles Wallace is a source of ammunition her classmates use to ridicule her; she’s the girl with the freak for a baby brother. 

 

Many stories about girls Meg’s age would follow a narrative of the girl learning not to be embarrassed about the atypical member of her family, but Meg’s ferocious love for Charles Wallace is one of her most admirable qualities.  It’s a defining facet of her character that she defends his honor at every turn, scrapping with those older and stronger than she is and going to the principal for her troubles.  She’s utterly thrown in her lot with Charles Wallace, and this is what leads to the extraordinary experiences in her life.

 

Charles Wallace is a great character, too – I don’t know why, but when I read his dialogue, he really feels like a child genius rather than an adult writer’s idea of what a child genius sounds like.  He’s knowledgeable, well-spoken, and unnervingly insightful, but he can also be petulant and a bit bossy.  Throughout A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L’Engle weaves in reminders of just how young he is, and that goes a long way toward balancing out the more incredible aspects of his character.  Like his sister, he has a strong sense of morality, and he doesn’t back down from a fight, though his are usually mental rather than physical.

 

As terrific as the Murrays are separately, they’re magnificent together.  They generally talk to each other like adults, discussing their problems and planning their next moves as a team.  Although Meg sometimes pulls “big sister” rank, she doesn’t run roughshod over Charles Wallace.  For his part, Charles Wallace’s higher I.Q. doesn’t diminish the importance of Meg’s input; he’s patient with her and explains without condescending.  Much is made of their innate connection, and it becomes vital when they learn to kythe in later books.

 

Most of all, each character’s primary motivation is often protecting the other.  From the very first chapter of A Wrinkle in Time, Charles Wallace gets up in the middle of the night to make cocoa because he knows Meg is afraid of the storm, and it only grows from there.  He’s her protector through their first adventure as much as she is his, and Meg’s involvement in A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet are entirely for Charles Wallace’s sake.  The climax of A Wrinkle in Time is perhaps the heart of the whole series.  It’s Meg at her most heroic, walking into an unspeakably dangerous situation that plays on all of her insecurities, and her greatest weapon is her love for Charles Wallace.  It’s them against the world (all the worlds,) and there’s nothing they wouldn’t do for each other – now that’s a love that can topple evil.