Wrinkles in translation

Part of what made Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 book A Wrinkle in Time such a revelation for young readers is that, for many, it was their introduction to science fiction. Unlike most children’s stories where magic just happens, Wrinkle offered physical explanations for its wonders. The new film version of the story makes a brief attempt at this as we watch Meg Murray’s parents present their theories on a fifth dimension that can fold time. But L’Engle’s science, not to mention her serious philosophy, is lost throughout the rest of the film, replaced by unimaginative hocus-pocus.

The grand characters of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which get the worst of director Ava DuVernay’s generic treatment. L’Engle’s book slowly introduced the weird sisters in the most hilarious and unlikely sequence. Here, they’re stock airy-fairy beings plopped down on the scene with no buildup. In the book we learn that Mrs. Whatsit was once a star who intentionally self-destructed in a cosmic battle. DuVernay instead gives us a glittery Reese Witherspoon who says only that the women are “warriors who serve the good.”

The flip side to the mesdames, the evil “IT” holding Meg’s father on a planet called Camazotz, is characterized by an all-purpose, postmodern badness. Where the book is clear that IT wants conformity and blind allegiance, the film says only that IT wants to cause “fear and prejudice” throughout the universe. We don’t even know what’s so especially threatening about IT. All we have are vague platitudes from Oprah Winfrey’s character that IT is dark and Meg’s light must overcome it.

The “light” refers to Meg’s natural goodness, not any external goodness she draws upon. To be fair, L’Engle’s books were never as explicitly—or soundly—Christian as C.S. Lewis’ Narnia trilogy, but DuVernay replaces her references to the Psalms and Romans with a popular, nebulous belief in the power within.

How ironic that Disney tamed L’Engle’s wild novel about the dangers of conformity by making it look and sound like everything else.