Others Magazine

SUMMARY

Meg (Storm Reid) is a 13-year-old girl with a scientist father (Chris Pine), who goes missing after discovering a new planet and using a scientific concept to travel there. Three interstellar beings show up (played by Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling) to recruit Meg and her mates to search for her dad – by heading off into time, space and the meaning of everything.

WHAT’S GOOD

A Wrinkle in Time has been a popular if controversial tween novel since it was first published in the 1960s. It’s taken more than 50 years to make it to the big screen in a pull-out-all-the-stops adaptation, so you can expect younger and older fans of author Madeleine L’Engel’s novel to be all kinds of happy that it is finally here. Disney has pumped a heap of money into getting the look and feel right, and there is a parade of female firepower in front of and behind the camera. Apart from the casting of Oprah Winfrey, along with Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project), mainstream big-budget blockbuster A Wrinkle in Time also boasts a female director (Ava DuVernay) and co-writer (Jennifer Lee).

WHAT’S NOT

Early reviews of A Wrinkle in Time sum it up as style over substance. Looks great but doesn’t necessarily do justice to all the huge concepts and allusions raised throughout Meg’s adventure (everything from good, evil, self-empowerment and time travel show up on-screen). One of the biggest elements chopped out of the book is its thread of Christianity. Bible verses have been dumped and references to Jesus dialled back, leaving A Wrinkle in Time the movie without one of the novel’s most intriguing features.

SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING

Author Madeleine L’Engle was a Christian - but her novel was accused of being too Christian and anti-Christian. That’s right: too Christian AND Anti-Christian. A Wrinkle in Time stirred up loads of debate for the way L’Engle incorporated parts of the Bible and represented Jesus. While she infused A Wrinkle in Time with Bible content (such as recurring nods to John 1 and its imagery), other parts suggest Jesus is the same as Gandhi, Buddha or Shakespeare. That is, Jesus was just another crusader for light over darkness in our world, in the same vein as so many other figures. For our relativist times, A Wrinkle in Time the movie has gone even further and made sure to be so inclusive of all religions that Jesus takes a back seat. You’ll have to investigate L’Engle’s comments about A Wrinkle In Time or, better still, the Bible itself to understand why pushing Jesus to the background might not be such a positive idea.

A Wrinkle in Time in rated PG and is released in cinemas on March 29