A Wrinkle in Time

What it's about:

After learning her astrophysicist father is being held captive on a distant planet deep in the grip of a universe-spanning evil, Meg Murry works with her highly intelligent brother, with her new friend and fellow student Calvin O'Keeffe, and with three astral travellers, Mrs. Which, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Who in order to save him.

What we thought:

In the run-up to the release of Ava DuVernay’s multimillion dollar film there was a lot of hype surrounding it.

When South Africa was excluded from the worldwide release in March and moved to a two month later release it wasn’t a good sign. 

A Wrinkle in Time is probably the most disappointing film of the year for me.

I’ll dive right in and tell you what didn’t work for me. 

The first hour moves at a very slow place, a lot of ideas are thrown around but none of them are fully fleshed out by the time the film reaches its climax.

While the celestial beings Mrs Who (Mindy Kaling), Mrs Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs Which (Oprah Winfrey) appeared magical with the over the top costumes they simply lacked the magic. 

Witherspoon was entertainingly ditzy, Oprah was Oprah and Kaling, whose character only speaks in famous authors and artists quotes, was uncompelling. 

There are quite a number of CGI sequences that, while pretty to look at, are a bit tedious. 

It just felt too much and at times it overshadowed Meg’s (Storm Reid) story which is the heart of the film.

What did work in the film is the young cast, I enjoyed the scenes most that involved Meg and her brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and the ones with her parents Dr Alex Murray (Chris Pine) and Dr Kate Murray (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

Reid held her own with the Hollywood A-listers. She’s a teen going through a mix of emotions: Uncertainty, fear, insecurity and she translates these so well which makes you root for her as she goes on a journey. 

Another stand out is McCabe who gave a nuanced performance as he effortlessly switched from his character being young and innocent to menacing and dark.

The movie works well when it focuses on the familiar coming of age trope – when the heroine faces her fears and discovers that she is stronger than she knows. 

I am aware that I am not the target audience and perhaps a younger crowd will enjoy the film with all its bells and whistles.

Hopefully it will inspire a whole generation of Megs that they can be the heroes of their own lives.