Film Review: <em>A Wrinkle in Time</em>
0
0
Read Time:3 Minute, 47 Second
Sometimes in the world of watching movies you encounter films that just don’t feel like they were made for you. Sadly, one of those movies is A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, which for all it’s elements, can’t cohere into anything more than a messy exercise in making a movie.
I don’t have fond memories of the book, in fact I don’t remember reading the book at all from when I was at El Sobrante Christian School. Watching A Wrinkle in Time with fresh eyes was an experience because unlike say Annihilation I was free from expectations or anticipation. In this film, we meet the Murrays: Meg (Storm Reid), Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), and Mrs. Murray (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Their father/husband (Chris Pine) has been missing for four years and it’s taken it’s toll on them. Enter in three Mrs. (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling) who says they heard his father’s call and are in need of warriors to fight the darkness that has claimed their father. Together with their new friend Calvin (Levi Miller) they journey across the universe to fight for what’s right.
A Wrinkle in Time has many winning elements: the emotional stakes of finding the father, a young girl discovering her strength, a whirlwind journey through new worlds. However, the movie does not seem grounded in anything, all of the emotion and intrigue is on the surface. Furthermore, it feels like the movie is taking the easy way out with much of its conflict by having the characters state what should be happening via character and conflict. The movie doesn’t really get started till the halfway point when Meg begins making decisions and we never get real chances to be unsettled because the movie moves so quickly. When we meet Mrs. Who and she’s speaking in quotes it’s so strange but the way the scene is cut you don’t build to the wonder you just are kind of expected to wonder before moving on. This movie also has a Jumanji 2 problem in that it ties conflicts into a neat bow when they should have been left a little frayed and presents new problems it didn’t need.
What could have saved this movie was not a stronger edit, but a more understanding one. The story doesn’t let us breathe or acknowledge any aspect of a current reality before seemingly tethering us to another one, and it’s reflected in the edit. A Wrinkle in Time felt like a movie that they tried to edit around certain things but edited themselves into corners. It’s this story of whimsy but you can’t experience the whimsy and weirdness if not grounded in something. We learn new information about characters like the principal (Andre Holland) or Veronica (Rowan Blanchard) in the most awkward and hamfisted ways that don’t make story sense. I felt unmoored from the first frame and it wasn’t until the third act’s climactic sequences that I felt on more solid ground. You can also feel the strain of having to edit around children’s performances and the desire of the movie to make sure you know everyone is in the scene at every moment. Meg’s budding romance with Calvin is perhaps the best through line in the film, but when the romance that should be second hand is leading the way? You have a problem.
Furthermore, I think Ava DuVernay is one of our most gifted filmmakers but she missed the mark here. It’s like the story flattened out her considerable talents. There’s no real interesting camera work or shots, and for a woman who made every frame of Queen Sugar and Selma feel like a living painting, it’s quite a disappointment. What Ava succeeds most at with is pulling winning performances from her cast, most notably the child playing Charles Wallace. I could have watched him for another hour he was so great.
But in the end, I am being forced to ask myself whether this film was “made for me” and if that’s contributing to how I feel. I honestly think that Ava made this movie for the young people of the world, to get to see diverse heroes and inspire new warriors. But unlike the folks from Pixar, which effortlessly blend the child and adult elements, she’s missing the connective tissue that ultimately left me cold on the film.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %