MOVIES
B Y M O L LY T E M P L E T O N
A KINDER, GENTLER CLASSIC
Inspiration replaces weirdness in Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
t might be easier, for those of us who grew up loving Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in
Time, to view Ava DuVernay’s movie as less adaptation and more distillation. Key parts
of the novel are there, but the essential weirdness of the book is missing, replaced with
something unexpectedly gentle and inspiring.
This movie wears a heart on each sleeve — one is DuVernay’s, glittering and wise
and focused on a long-neglected audience; the other, polished to a safe sort of colorful
gleam, is Disney’s.
I would have liked a weirder Wrinkle, but I find it hard to argue too much with the one
we got.
Leave your memory of the book at the theater door, and this is what you’ll find: a story
that offers a stubborn, mistrustful, aching, much-needed heroine; that unabashedly presents
itself as a guide for making the world better, one small act at a time; is fiercely interested
in presenting a world free of stereotypes and gender norms; and that wants to remind you
that love is never uncool.
Meg Murry (Storm Reid) misses her scientist father (Chris Pine), who vanished four
years ago. Could he have left his perfect family? It almost doesn’t matter; what matters is
how it feels. The rest of Meg’s family, including her preternaturally mature little brother,
Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), and her also-a-scientist mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw,
excellent but underused), are wonderful, but Meg hurts, a fact that should be apparent to
I
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anyone with eyes.
That hurt leaves her suspicious — of Calvin (Levi Miller), a classmate who’s sweetly
interested in Meg, and of the strange women Charles Wallace keeps introducing her to.
These are the Mrses — Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and
Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) — all glitter-lipsticked, definitely-not-human-beings who
send Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin across the universe in search of Mr. Murry.
Meg is no Alice in Wonderland, blithely accepting of all the weirdness she encounters.
She doesn’t trust herself, doesn’t trust the Mrses and can’t fully fling herself into the
adventure at hand. Her doubt makes her journey more difficult — but it doesn’t stop her.
You don’t have to have faith or trust the world, this story says, in order to have wild
adventures. It’s OK to doubt and question, to be angry and skeptical. Not everyone is Lucy
Pevensie, running wide-eyed off to tea with a faun. Some of us are Meg Murry, and some
of us don’t have our balance yet.
Wrinkle isn’t so much about how the journey changes you as it is about how you can
change yourself — and how that’s one small step that everyone is capable of taking. It
doesn’t ask for perfection; it asks for acceptance.
The movie, like each of us, has its flaws. And maybe it should: Those flaws are a
reminder that $100 million can’t buy perfection. It can, however, provide vision, and color
and inclusiveness, and an intense curiosity as to what Ava DuVernay will do next. ■
MARCH 16-22
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A FANTASTIC WOMAN (R)
Oscar Winner for Best Foreign Film
In Spanish with English Subtitles
A transgender singer faces scorn and discrimination after the
sudden death of her older boyfriend.
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IN THE FADE (R)
In German with English Subtitles
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Katja’s life collapses after the death of her husband and son in
a bomb attack. After a time of mourning and injustice, Katja
seeks revenge.
NOVITIATE (R)
Set in the early 1960s and during the era of Vatican II, a young
woman in training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith,
the changing church and sexuality.
1:00, 8:45
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eugeneweekly.com • March 15, 2018
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