OVERVIEW: A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Mar. 31st, 2018 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllA Wrinkle in Time (2018) (rated PG)
Directed by: Ava DuVernay
Written by: Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell
Adapted from the book by: Madeleine L'Engle
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1620680/?ref_=nv_sr_1
I remember when I first heard about A Wrinkle in Time and being struck by how I hadn’t heard of it before. It took me a while to realise that it was a classic children’s book in the US that never made it in the UK. Still, I was pleased rather than not that Disney was making a big live action feature where a girl was the main character, and also, having thought highly of Selma, that its director Ava DuVernay was getting to make it, and would have a mixed-race heroine and more diverse cast than the run of the mill.
It’s an eye-popping science fantasy film, with Meg Murry (Storm Reid), her adopted younger brother and a cute boy friend from school crossing the universe to find and rescue her father. They’re helped by three eccentric powers, played by Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and a relatively underused Mindy Kaling. The child casting is pretty good, Reid has a winsome face – you’re rooting for her Meg, even when Meg is loathing herself and making foolish decisions. And though young Deric McCabe went too big in the final showdown, I was interested that they set aside the father fixation then, but, after all, most absent fathers are not absent for such reasons.
There are problems to do with the script, to do with the structure and a lack of tension at some points. Although it has positive messages about self-worth, love and trust, it goes a bit New Agey (apparently they diluted the more Christian themes of the book) – the sort of thing you would expect Oprah herself to utter. It’s not as terrible as its harshest critics are claiming, but it’s not as good as I wished it were.
Directed by: Ava DuVernay
Written by: Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell
Adapted from the book by: Madeleine L'Engle
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1620680/?ref_=nv_sr_1
I remember when I first heard about A Wrinkle in Time and being struck by how I hadn’t heard of it before. It took me a while to realise that it was a classic children’s book in the US that never made it in the UK. Still, I was pleased rather than not that Disney was making a big live action feature where a girl was the main character, and also, having thought highly of Selma, that its director Ava DuVernay was getting to make it, and would have a mixed-race heroine and more diverse cast than the run of the mill.
It’s an eye-popping science fantasy film, with Meg Murry (Storm Reid), her adopted younger brother and a cute boy friend from school crossing the universe to find and rescue her father. They’re helped by three eccentric powers, played by Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and a relatively underused Mindy Kaling. The child casting is pretty good, Reid has a winsome face – you’re rooting for her Meg, even when Meg is loathing herself and making foolish decisions. And though young Deric McCabe went too big in the final showdown, I was interested that they set aside the father fixation then, but, after all, most absent fathers are not absent for such reasons.
There are problems to do with the script, to do with the structure and a lack of tension at some points. Although it has positive messages about self-worth, love and trust, it goes a bit New Agey (apparently they diluted the more Christian themes of the book) – the sort of thing you would expect Oprah herself to utter. It’s not as terrible as its harshest critics are claiming, but it’s not as good as I wished it were.
