A Wrinkle in Time
“A Wrinkle in Time” is not as special an accomplishment as you would like to see it be, but there’s no denying that Ava DuVernay is a special filmmaker. The director of the Oscar-nominated “Selma” & “The 13th” is taking a left turn from those films, but her heart is still in the fight against the darkness of the world in her adaptation of the book by Madeleine L’Engle. Heart is all over this film, and it makes for an emotionally-draining, and enriching, experience even when DuVernay stumbles a bit in the tone of the fantasy elements. The former is more important to my appreciation of the film.
The film begins with Meg (Storm Reid) and her father (played by Chris Pine) bonding over scientific discovery. Both Meg’s mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and father are scientists, and they have been working towards unlocking the secrets of the universe, and figuring out a way to travel across time and space as they prepare to adopt a young boy, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe). Shortly thereafter, Meg’s father disappears, and while locals have their own theories on what happened, Meg and her family wonder whether his disappears due to his scientific research. On the fourth anniversary of his going missing, Meg and Charles Wallace find themselves faced with three beings (played by Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Oprah Winfrey) who allow them to hear a cry from their father across the universe, and take them on an adventure to find him.
That is a very generic recap of the storyline by screenwriter Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell, but this story is anything but generic. DuVernay is working with a narrative that is more rooted in the emotional adventures of her characters, especially Meg (whom Reid embodies with captivating confidence), than a typical good vs. evil narrative. I found myself thinking of “A Wrinkle in Time” as a live-action Miyazaki film, in many ways, with the great animator’s “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Spirited Away” serving as particularly strong influences in how DuVernay tells Meg’s story here. In many of Miyazaki’s best films, the self-image of the main character is the battle being fought, and that is very much Meg’s biggest struggle in this film. In the four years since her father vanished, she has become a loner and a troublemaker, lacking direction in her life that her father seemed to instill in her. Throughout the film, that’s the biggest part of Meg’s arc, and it’s one that is emotionally-powerful to watch unfold. Near the beginning, I was reminded of my own feelings of lacking direction and guidance after my grandfather passed away in 2000 before the similarities with Miyazaki really took hold, and that identification with Meg lasts throughout the film, and lead to many tears being shed throughout the film. Fantasy tied to an emotional storyline has been a successful formula for Disney over the years, but with films like this and their “Pete’s Dragon” reimagining two years ago, they’re allowing accomplished and versatile directors a shot at the formula, and like that film, “A Wrinkle in Time” is pretty successful with it.
Ironically, the fantasy itself is where the film falters, if it does. For the most part, DuVernay brings a world where science and imagination come to life beautifully (if she didn’t, I wouldn’t be comparing the film favorably to Miyazaki), with rich visuals and a genuine sense of wonder. I love the way the film looks and sounds so much that, at the end, when some of the effects work feels a bit sloppy (especially when Meg is confronted by “The It” late in the film), and the tone of some of the performances feels off, it’s a little disheartening. Thematically and emotionally, however, DuVernay keeps the film on a solid trajectory, to the point where the ending landed effectively for me, almost making my few issues with the film moot. As left field as the film seems from DuVernay’s most recent work, it remains the vision of a woman who is looking to inspire us to overcome darkness, and bring some light to the world. Seeing it after the news that she’s going to be doing a DC film next, I’m excited by the prospect of what she’ll be able to bring out of superheroes that meshes with her previous films on a thematic level. Even with its faults, “A Wrinkle in Time” shines brightly with hope for the future, and inspires us to push ourselves more than we thought we could.
