On March 9, 2018, A Wrinkle in Time, written by Jennifer Lee and directed by Ava DuVernay, came to theatres. The film is an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s award winning novel A Wrinkle in Time, and the first book of the Time Quintet.

The film follows Meg Murry (Storm Reid) who, along with her younger brother Charles Wallace, a child prodigy (Deric McCabe), and junior Calvin O’Keefe (Levi Miller), embarks on a quest to find her missing father Dr. Alex Murry (Chris Pine). Aided by the supernatural inhabitants of a local haunted house, Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), the children travel through wrinkles in time called tesseracts, in the fifth dimension.

The film is quite different from the novel it is based on. While it follows a similar plot line, one involving the disappearance of Meg Murry’s father, the film loses aspects of the story written by L’Engle, a fact that might disappoint viewers. The film begins by introducing the fact the Charles Wallace is not the biological sibling of Meg Murry, a topic that is not only not true to the novel, but is continually thrown in the faces of its viewers. The absence of the Murry children’s siblings Sandy and Denise also takes away from the original familiar connections within the Murry family. The addition of other minor characters combined with the loss of original characters created a environment that I found less than true to the book.

Furthermore, the portrayal of the relationship between Meg and her father was unlike the loving and trusting relationship of the novel, conveying a greater emphasis on the abandonment of Meg and her family rather than the original idea of Dr. Alex Murry being taken from them. This idea changes the entire dynamic of the story from one of a daughter yearning to find a father who was taken by forces out of Dr. Murry’s control, to one of willful abandonment on Dr. Murry’s side.

The actors chosen fit the characters Lee and DuVernay were trying to portray amazingly, but throughout the film the character choices made either by the director or the actors, just were not the characters from the novel. With the movie relying heavily on special effects, I was impressed with how realistic it appeared. Occasionally, I could spot a CGI flaw, but primarily the effects were flawless.

Overall, the directing and acting of the movie was brilliant, but if you are looking for the beautiful story conveyed through L’Engle’s novel, you will not find it in this movie. The story conveyed was a beautiful one, but not the A Wrinkle in Time we all remember.

7/10