'A Wrinkle in Time' Is an Uncommon Disney Stinker

A Wrinkle in Time is the Disney film adaptation of the popular fantasy children’s book of the same name by Madeleine L’Engle.   It follows Meg Murry (Storm Reid), her little brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), and her friend Calvin O’Keefe (Levi Miller) as they are guided by a trio of astral beings – Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kailing) – to go on an intergalactic quest to find Dr. Alexander Murry (Chris Pine), Meg and Charles Wallace’s father, who has mysteriously disappeared years ago.

Right from the start, I knew I wouldn’t like this movie.  First of all, I was never a fan of the book.  I picked it up years ago because it was supposed to be a “fantasy classic.”  But it never really impressed me.  Honestly, I thought it was so bland that I only read it once (usually, I read every book I own at least twice) and forgot much of the story.  Then, I saw the trailers.  It didn’t look good.  It didn’t pique an iota of interest from me.

But I still watched the movie once it’s available for “free” digitally (*cough*).  Why?  Well, first, it was possible that I might get to like it.  I always find it pleasurable when a movie I first thought would be bad would turn out being surprisingly more enjoyable than I expected.  Second, there’s always the hate-watch or so-bad-that-it’s-good possibility, which can be an entertaining experience in its own way.

However, yeah, after watching it, I just straight up disliked it.

I can’t remember much of the book, so I can’t be sure if the flaws are inherent to the source material or are exclusively the fault of the movie.  Either way, it is muddled, sappy, and pretentious.  It has a few nice visual sequences – particularly, when the characters were in the planet Uriel – but they are so few and fleeting to mask its substantial problems and sustain any sense of wonder and thrill.

I didn’t find any of the characters likable.  They range from punchable to meh, which can be attributed to terrible casting, cringy acting, and/or poorly-written characterizations.  Sorry, this is not to be mean, but honestly, I especially found Deric McCabe to be intensely annoying as heck.  It’s not his fault; this is on the casting director.  I probably wouldn’t have minded him so much if the other young actors were able to carry this movie.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t.  They aren’t significantly awful, but they are pretty uncharismatic and average.  Moreover, the movie is just trying too hard to make its weird characters funny and quirky (they aren’t; they’re just weird).  Plus, giant Oprah is the stuff of nightmares.

So A Wrinkle in Time is easily one of this year’s worst films.  I guess with all the success Disney is having with its other properties, it’s statistically inevitable for it to have a stinker once in a while.