Ava DuVernay truly wants “A Wrinkle In Time” to be the most glorious, inspiring movie you’ve ever seen. She wants you – yes you, little black girl who has never seen herself represented on screen before – to believe in yourself so you can bring light into the world and be a force for positive change. DuVernay believes this so strongly that she’s even dressed Oprah in space age chain mail, glued-on diamonds and a glittery lip gloss that looks like it cost half of the movie’s $100 million budget so that Oprah can do what Oprah does best and make it seem like she’s speaking directly to you.
DuVernay certainly can’t be faulted for ambition, and at times, “A Wrinkle In Time” really does reach that high standard. It has color and beauty and a humanistic touch that another director, even one more suited to a franchise, tentpole budget, could not bring to the film.
But “A Wrinkle in Time” has no room for cynicism and snark, and it’s near impossible to avoid them for a movie with as many garish costumes, laughable set pieces, nonsensical plot threads and inflated sense of importance as this film. For as much as “A Wrinkle In Time” wants you in awe, it’s a frustrating, bizarre mess of a movie that gets harder and harder to love.
In “A Wrinkle In Time,” an insecure teenage girl (Storm Reid) and her bright and precocious young brother (Deric McCabe) take an intergalactic journey to find their father (Chris Pine) lost in space, guided by three sage, mystical “Mrs.’s” (Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling). All three wear hideous gowns and speak almost entirely in axioms and profound parables each worthy of a motivational poster. One even announces whom she’s quoting and their country of origin, from the Bible to Shakespeare to OutKast. Along the way, the kids talk to gossipy flowers, they do pilates with Zach Galifianakis, and Reese Witherspoon transforms into a giant flying, billowing piece of lettuce. Not a bit of it makes a lick of sense.
Each new planet and world they encounter feels less like a part of some well-imagined, scientific universe and more a means to symbolize the idea that you can accomplish anything with the power of your mind. Perhaps the best example is that rather than fighting off a specific villain, they’re battling back a manifestation of pure darkness literally called the It.
But this is where DuVernay’s human touch comes into play. Darkness and evil in the world to her doesn’t mean super villainy. She shows teenagers bullying a defenseless old man, a girl ashamed of her body in the mirror or a father berating his son for getting a B on a test. DuVernay roots darkness in reality, an expression of bad feelings that a child might recognize more readily than a supernatural force. It’s a lovely sequence, and you start to appreciate the movie’s brimming spirit of optimism. The movie even quotes all the warriors of the light that have come before, including Einstein, Martin Luther King and Gandhi. You have expect them to next list off Michelle Obama.
Yet before long, darkness has taken hold of the protagonist’s younger brother. Here is this kid, no older than 10 and dressed in a Mr. Rogers sweater vest using mind powers to drag his sister and father through a randomly placed black corridor that looks like something out of “1984.” It’s laughable, and whether it’s a mad dash to a wall for some reason or a magical eye glass that reveals a hidden staircase, “A Wrinkle In Time” often feels like it’s making stuff up as it goes along. Watching it feels like playing with a three-year-old whose imagination, attention span and enthusiasm is moving faster than even a willing adult can keep up.
“A Wrinkle In Time” feels inseparable from “Black Panther.” They’re both massive Disney movies made by two talented black directors. And each film is a vital stake in the ground for diversity and representation on screen. These movies matter, and that’s not lost on DuVernay or Ryan Coogler. But “Black Panther” is a landmark because it finds meaning within its blockbuster world. The colorful universe doesn’t feel like an after thought to the movie’s spirit.
DuVernay’s heart is in the right place with “A Wrinkle In Time,” but her head might be in another galaxy.
2 ½ stars