Against my better judgment I broke down and watched A Wrinkle in Time Monday night. The upside is that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be; the downside is that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
First of all, I want everyone to know that I wasn’t expecting the movie to come even close to the book. I ranked Wrinkle with Confederacy of Dunces in terms of unfilmability. (Note to Hollywood: Don’t even think of greenlighting Confederacy unless you cast Oliver Platt as Ignatius) So it was a little disheartening to realize the movie embodied the paradox about a certain kind of film adaptation: it wasn’t great, but it was obviously produced by someone who really cared about the book, which made watching it a maddening experience. Though spiritually and textually devoted to Wrinkle in spots, it veered into über-exposition at critical points. It was as if the producers/directors/powers-that-be didn’t trust non-Wrinkle fans getting it unless they made plot-points really, really obvious. So what did they do? They sucked the life out of it.
There were some high points, though:
- Alfre Woodard – she’s not how I envisioned Mrs. Whatsit, but it’s a brilliant choice. Alfre is the poster child when it comes to African-American actors and their lack of recognition in Hollywood: rent Crooklyn and then explain to me why she wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award.
- Kyle Secor as the Prime Coordnator. Mmmm…Kyle….
- Alison Elliott as Mrs. Who: her voice sounded as if she were channeling Billie Burke in her Glenda the Good Witch persona, but hey–it worked for me.
- David Dorfman: he’s exactly how I visualized Charles Wallace physically.
- Did I mention Kyle Secor??
And I promise I won’t use the word “wrinkle” in a blog title for at least three months….
Mmmm … Kyle Secor.
I had no idea that little Timmy Bayliss could chew the scenery like that.
I haven’t read A Wrinkle in Time (yet!), so the movie just seemed odd in places. Not hideously bad odd, but just distracting enough to be distracting.
Oh, and a shout-out to Chris Potter, who played one of Michael’s boyfriends on Queer as Folk. Woo hoo!
Did you notice that, in the list of warriors fighting against the dark, Charles Wallace’s suggestion, Jesus, was omitted?
And why was the horsey version of Whatsit blonde and white?