In the movie, all it takes is for the Man with Red Eyes to say the multiplication tables. In the books, it’s Charles Wallace’s arrogance at believing he can enter the mind of IT without succumbing that gets him in trouble. It is a devilishly frightening scenario, one the film replaces with a weird, brightly colored beach scene. When they enter this building, they are faced with the Man with Red Eyes, who mocks them even while offering them sustenance. In the books, the children walk together, holding hands, up to this horrifying bureaucratic nightmare building, avoiding all the adults moving in sync, like the children with their balls. I’m not sure, but, for me, it definitely took the bite out of the battle with IT. I imagine that if you haven’t read the books, this ends up being more confusing than anything else. Instead of being the horrible thing they face on Camazotz, the film tries to condense and simplify by making IT the ultimate evil.
In the movie, IT has been named the ultimate evil, responsible for spreading that darkness. The evil force the children face is a darkness spreading across the universe, and IT on Camazotz is a manifestation of that darkness. The book explains what a tesseract is and why their father is in danger, having tessered onto a hostile planet. Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace are invited to go on an adventure by fantastic beings to save Meg and Charles Wallace’s father. Granted, the book does make for some difficult subject matter to translate to the silver screen, but it shouldn’t have been this difficult. When I finally got to see A Wrinkle in Time, I understood why. I avoided reading any reviews about the film before seeing it because I didn’t want anything to color my viewing of the movie, but I did see it wasn’t getting a lot of love. I think the child actors really nailed their parts and could not have asked for a better Meg or Calvin (Levi Miller). I loved that they cast Meg as a girl of color, and I really respect DuVernay’s vision of a more diverse cast than the book originally had. The screen positively lit up with brilliant color and vivid imagery in key scenes, bringing to life parts of the book that I’d always imagined, like the scene with all the children bouncing their red balls in unison.
VINTAGE SCENE BOUNCING ON RED BALL MOVIE
A Wrinkle in Time deserved the full Hollywood movie treatment, and it got exactly that. I adore the books, and they made a significant mark on me in my childhood, so my hopes were high. I have to admit to being a little disappointed by the film.