meganursula | A Wrinkle in Time: the movie

I had the opportunity to see A Wrinkle in Time, in the theater no less. (Thank you, chaperoning duties. Its a pretty sweet gig, and this year I've gotten to do a couple of 'worth it for the kids' field trips, and a couple of 'really cool for me, too' field trips. Regardless, since we never see movies, I doubt I would have seen this one if my daughter's 5th grade class hadn't had the book on their reading list.)

I must admit, I was pretty wary. Its always a little worrisome when a beloved piece of art is renovated, but I was also worried about how I would react to the casting. While I applaud, in principal, DuVernays vision of the main characters of more varied races, I wasn't entirely sure it would sit well with me for this particular story.

See, Meg Murray - she is me. The book probably would have meant a lot to me if it had a slightly different protagonist; the message of 'love conquers all' and 'naming the individual' has value was well-suited to where I was at the time of my first reading. Permission to be passionate, and curious, AND imperfect is so hopeful. However, that the protagonist was so close to me also had meaning - I mean, here was someone in a book with mouse-brown hair, a funny appearance, too good at math, *attending the 'big regional high school up the hill' that my sister went to*, *named Meg* for goodness sake. I can't pretend there wasn't a resonance that was unique there.

In short, Meg was not a character I could bear to have screwed up.

But, it turns out, Storm Reid was amazing. And she captured all the bits of the character that were important. That confusion of grief and hope, kindness and anger, brilliance and incompetence - they were all there. That yearning to find her place, her strength - all there. It totally worked.

Well, i'm not saying the move was perfect. I enjoyed some parts, and really was let down by other aspects. I thought the whole traveling segment was too shiny, and too happy. There wasn't that conflict that L'Engle was so brilliant about capturing. I feel like some things were lost in what was cut; Calvin's quirky charm was abbreviated, for example. And I really felt like Charles Wallace was not well portrayed - we really didn't see that complex, troubled, brilliant, and loving kid that you see in the books.

However, *thumbs up*. I think the movie is a success. I think it was well timed, giving our fifth graders a message that is hopeful in a difficult winter of conflict and fear. And I think, much as the book was a ground-breaker for presenting a female heroine, I appreciate that the story was evolved to present more than one strong black character.