Weekly Film: A Wrinkle in Time

Weekly Film: A Wrinkle in Time


A Wrinkle in Time is a fantasy, adventure film directed by Ava DuVernay, famous for the multi-award winning film Selma. The film had a budget exceeding $100 million, making her the first African-American woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of that size. Despite the main character being portrayed by child actor Storm Reid, the marketing department chose to focus on established actors: Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon's involvement. The film is based on a novel written in 1962 by Madeleine L'Engle. 

The film contains themes of self-belief and has the clear binary opposites of light vs dark, good vs evil.  It consists of main character, Meg Murray embarking on an adventure to try and find her missing father whilst trying to avoid the dark entity known as the IT. They are accompanied by the three Mrs: Who, Which and Whatsit. To be honest the Mrs do not exactly help her at all doing little to actually help Meg find her father even disappearing part way through the film due to conveniently losing their magical abilities. Even when they were with Meg their main source of usefulness was as a form of teleportation. I really did expect to see more of the Mrs and the power that they were said to have. Especially because they were advertising their involvement so much.
  
However, I would say that a standout scene in the film would be Witherspoon's transformation into a leafy green creature (what it is is never explained). Despite this, it is a beautiful scene and contains that essence of Disney magic that audiences expect when watching one of their films. Everything about the scene is done well such as the different camera shots. These include panning shots of the environment as well as rotating shots and POV shots that give the impression that you are on the same flight that the characters are on. Also, to add to the magic, the films score is played in the background. In my opinion this scene makes the film and has the significance of also being a huge turning point in Meg's life.

As for performance, I would praise Reid's acting. I enjoyed and sympathised with her character a lot more than I did with Meg in the book and was actually intrigued to see her journey unfold. I also enjoyed the chemistry that she shared with the other characters such as her friend Calvin played by Levi Miller and her younger brother Charles Wallace played by Deric McCabe. McCabe's performance would probably be my favourite in the film. He was my biggest source of laughs in the film both with his know-it-all attitude and his naivety and trusting mindset. He also has the capabilities of being a great villain in future roles that he may choose to play.

The film received mixed reception only gaining 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.2/10 on IMDB. Personally I read the book years ago and wasn't a huge fan, so I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. Since the film is still in the cinema (at the time that I am writing this) I cannot give a great view on how it did at the box office. However at the moment it is at $117 million(US) meaning that it made its budget back in the first couple of weeks.

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