A Wrinkle in Time

[osprey_archer]

I finally saw A Wrinkle in Time! And... eh, I felt a bit meh about it. I've always felt a bit meh about the book too (I know, I should just hand in my geek girl card like, yesterday), so possibly this is just not my story in any form.

Surprisingly, most of the things that worried me from the trailers weren't problems in the movies: I was afraid Meg's father would get too much prominence, that the vibe for Mrs Whatsit, Who, and Which was off, and that there wasn't enough Charles Wallace, but actually all that was fine. Meg's father is suitably secondary. The Mrs's (how on earth do you pluralize that?) don't look like bag ladies, the way they do in the book, but their weird sparkle aesthetic is suitably otherworldly. And there's certainly plenty of Charles Wallace.

There may in fact be a bit too much Charles Wallace, but that's straight from the book so I can't lay that at the movie's feet. And I actually thought the climactic scene, where Meg saves Charles Wallace through the Power of Love, was wonderfully well done and actually sold me on a scene that I really didn't quite buy in the book, which is possibly proof that I have no soul.

(I've always felt vaguely guilty about not liking the book more. A Ring of Endless Light was always my L'Engle book: does that get me my geek girl card back?)

In any case. The movie really nailed the ending, but I didn't feel swept away by the rest of it and for fantasy movies in particular I want to be swept away into a different world and I just... wasn't... quite.

Comments

[sovay]

I found the Mr Jenkins in DuVernay's movie to be far more sympathetic than I'd imagined him; but I can't tell how much of that comes from the ways in which my perspective has changed since I was 12.

If DuVernay is hoping to make A Wind in the Door, it might be setup.

[landofnowhere]

I suppose? I felt like the point of that bit in The Wind in the Door was that Mr Jenkins was someone who was hard to like but still worth seeing and appreciating the humanity of, and this just feels too easy to do for movie Mr. Jenkins?

It's the difference between this guy in the graphic novel (that exchange is missing from the movie), and this guy from the movie. The presentations of movie Mr. Jenkins makes me want to believe he wouldn't put up with Charles Wallace being bullied -- which, like, he very well might not in a hypothetical DuVernay sequel; attitudes about bullying have changed.

[sovay]

Mr Jenkins was someone who was hard to like but still worth seeing and appreciating the humanity of

I agree with that, which is why my mental fancasting is William "obnoxious and disliked" Daniels. I just can't think of another reason to make the character sympathetic, unless he's serving an entirely different purpose in the film than in the book.

[landofnowhere]

It's true -- they might do something completely different with him in a movie sequel. I'm perfectly happy with movie Jenkins as a character in his own right, he's just a different guy from book Jenkins. Which is well, how I feel about most of the movie characters.