Ryan McNeil
We live in a demanding age. Never before have we known so much about our world, our neighbours, and ourselves. Never before has the bar of what is ideal been set so high, never before have we been so introspective about choices not made, paths not taken.
In the facet of that, we have begun to demand perfection. We want perfection from ourselves, perfection from our heroes, and perfection in our art. When things aren’t perfect – when they are messy – we begin to feel like something has gone wrong, or someone took the easy way out.
The truth is actually the opposite. It’s difficult to be messy: to own the messiest parts of ourselves, and wave that banner proudly.
A WRINKLE IN TIME is the story of Meg (Storm Reid). Four years ago, Meg’s father, Alex (Chris Pine) disappeared without a trace. Convinced that it was possible to travel across the universe by manipulating a fifth dimension (“creating a wrinkle in time”), his research seemed to get the better of him and nobody has heard from him since. His wife Kate (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is heartbroken, his son Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) is a stranger, and Meg is adrift.
When the stress of Alex’s disappearance seems to be reaching point break, a stranger comes knocking on The Murrys’ door. Charles Wallace recognizes her as Missus Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and she informs the family that a cry has been heard in the deepest corner of the universe, and that some believe that cry to be coming from their missing patriarch. Charles Wallace then leads Meg and her friend Calvin to Missus Who (Mindy Kaling) – a wise seer who speaks in the words of wise people through history. She confirms the theory of Missus Whatsit, and likewise sees potential in Meg.
Soon, the children meet Missus Which (Oprah Winfrey), who implores Meg to tap into her inner strength, and take the lead on her father’s rescue.
The charge has the children wrinkling time and space and moving to corners of the galaxy previously inconceived. In these far reaches, while sensing their father’s proximity, they are also in the grasp of the darkest force ever known – a hungry and all-consuming force known as “The IT”. The closer the children get to their father, the more devious The IT becomes.
It falls on the children’s shoulders to become warriors…to find their father…and as the great poet said, rage against the dying of the light.
At the core of Ava DuVernay’s latest film is an undeniable truth: that these are dark times. Isolation and alienation feed fear, and fear gives way to hate. With every passing week, shadows stretch further and further into what once was light. So many souls fall prey to the darkness – our neighbours, our parents, even our children.
With every passing week, they are forced to listen to another reason why they should consider themselves “lesser”. Their parents were born in the wrong place…their skin is the wrong colour…the person they love is the wrong gender. When they look at billboards, at movies, on so many corners of the internet – they see what they are not. How long until feelings of isolation manifest as acts of aggression? What does it take to keep such feelings at bay? Can they possibly be inspired to rise above?
A WRINKLE IN TIME aims to be a beacon in such dark times. It is not content to allow Meg to tumble down the rabbit hole like Alice; tasked to wander from moment to moment of nonsense. It does not wish for a girl like Meg to be a bystander in her own story. Instead, it wants her to be a warrior – as Missus Which implores. In so doing, it wants to inspire young moviegoers like Meg to become warriors themselves.
The transformation in this film isn’t instantaneous. It requires the heroes to have true faith in one-another, holding fast to their bonds. They may encounter moments of weakness, moments of self-doubt, or even moments of malice. Such feelings spike in the late going when the strength and intelligence of Charles Wallace is tempted into darkness by The IT. So it goes in life. We only move forward when we pick each-other up, when we forgive moments of weakness, when we forgive ourselves.
In order to do this, me must – as A WRINKLE IN TIME underlines – consider what led people into the darkness. Some, admittedly, are just lost. But so many allowed themselves to become lesser versions of themselves due to pain or circumstance beyond their control. How might we relate to our friends and neighbours if we were dealt the cards they were?
A WRINKLE IN TIME takes us to worlds that are nothing like our own, many of which are wrapped with dangerous trappings like thorn bushes clinging to castle walls. It wants to warn us all how easy it can be to get seduced by promises and pandering. It likewise wants us to think about the dangers of hubris and ambition, and just how far we can drift from those we love dearest in the name of ambition. When we bring these ideas together, add a lush colour palette and the inspiring timbre of Oprah Winfrey, we get a fable told in broad strokes.
The key to this interpretation of the fable is to remember the intended audience.
It’s easy to look at a film like this with the cynicism of adulthood and pull at its threads. It’s also difficult to accept this film’s aesthetic when one has come of age with a completely different cinematic palette.
However, in both of those cases, the perspective betrays the fact that this is a family film meant to inspire the younger generation. It aims to take a story from the past and present to it the present. What’s more, it wants to bring the fantastical to life, and if that means that imagery mimics our most fantastical cultural avenues, so be it.
The older generation had their turn with fantastical adventures – and if they are honest, many of those adventures were technically spotty. Time to give the kids a turn.