A Wrinkle in Time film review ★★★★★

Beloved. It’s a word probably banned now in every publication’s style handbook, but it’s one which fits all aspects of A Wrinkle in Time so very well.

The film is adapted from Madeleine d’Engle’s 1962 beloved novel of the same name. It glitters with a star-studded cast featuring beloved entertainers and all-round influential figures Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.

It’s also directed by the (deservedly) beloved Ava DuVernay, director of Selma and 13th (absolutely required viewing) as well as creditor of the ‘DuVernay test’, a version of the Bechdel test but for proper representation of minorities in film – a test this film passes with flying colours. Lots and lots of them, in fact.

A Wrinkle in Time is an ultra-technicolour, kaleidoscopic journey to the far flung corners of the universe and beyond, as we follow 13-year old Meg Murry (Storm Reid), a gifted student racked by self-doubt, in the search for her father (Chris Pine), a highly-admired astrophysicist who disappeared four years ago while trying to crack the meaning of life.

She’s aided by an impossibly bedecked and bejewelled trio of weird sisters who can bend, or wrinkle, space and time (Winfrey, Witherspoon and Kaling); Meg’s boy-next-door crush (Levi Miller); and her little brother (Deric McCabe) whose bouncy precociousness ends up running the show.

There are the usual trials and tribulations and occasionally moving reconciliations, as well as a wealth of sincerely delivered pep talks and aphorisms about (self-)acceptance, (self-)love and (self-)determination which make for a very wholesome hour and a half’s worth of viewing (and a hefty deposit to Disney’s bank of inspirational clips and soundbites).

The glut of CGI and visual effects, though, tips this film over into the realm of the outright indecent; there’s more glitter on show than you could shake a sparkler at. Otherwise held together by fairly strong performances from the kids and the promise of a father-daughter bond, due to the sensory overload, the film turns from action adventure into something of an endurance course for anyone who’s made it to the other side of puberty.

A Wrinkle in Time marks the first time a woman of colour has directed a live-action feature film with a budget over $100 million and it looks like DuVernay has spent every single cent and maybe even dug into her savings too. The film demands the same sort of T.L.C from the audience as she has clearly lavished on this adaptation. But that’s a hard ask if you’ve developed anything like a sense of irony – or if you’re the sort of person who balks at the word ‘beloved’.

In sum, if you rank among the old and jaded, this film is simply not made for you. Take your young niece or nephew, godson or goddaughter, your own child or even your inner child, but leave every single ounce of your disbelief at the door…if you can.