Adaptation Month - A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time was a book released in 1962 written Madeline L’engle. The film rights were acquired by Disney and 2 attempts of an adaptation have been released. One a TV mini-series released in 2003, and a feature film released in 2018. I’m going to be looking at the latter as that’s the most recent and frankly it’s the worst of the two. Handling the adaptation process are Jennifer Lee, a major figurehead in Disney’s animation department with works including Wreck it Ralph and Frozen and Jeff Stockman, who had previously brought Bridge to Terebithia to screen

The film was a box office Bomb for Disney, making a mere $133 million on it’s $130m budget, making the second biggest bomb of the year, we’ll be covering the biggest in due course. It holds a mixed 42% with critics but audiences were less kind, giving it a 27% rating

So quick summary of my thoughts on them as individual entities

The Book

A Wrinkle in Time is a relatively short book at just over 250 pages. This is probably its biggest weakness as it gives little chance for any of the characters to shine and the story, in particular the conclusion, feels very rushed. I feel it also gets a little pretentious, with a few too many things being described as ‘indescribable’ or ‘beyond your comprehension’

The Film

I don’t know what to tell you, this film is a mess. I’ll go over story related issues in the adaptation review, but there are plenty of other problems. The CG, given the budget, is p*ss poor, the level of pretentiousness is actually increased, even without them explaining the science of other dimensions to kids. There are several fails in cinematography including having visions with no perspective, and cutting to a different shot from the same perspective with no indication of the perspective character blinking.

“Charles Wallace, what are you doing outside”

He isn’t, he’s in the kitchen. How the f*ck did this get past editing?

OK, let’s talk adaptation

What the kept

Meg being a social outcast who’s been struggling in school since her father’s disappearance 4 years (+10), A storm brewing, Meg going downstairs to find Charles Wallace has already prepared hot milk for her, somehow knowing she’d be coming (+10) Mrs Whatsit showing up and showing a previous friendship with Charles Wallace (+10), her telling the mother that there is such a thing as a tesseract (+10)

Like you weren’t making that joke at the time! Let’s see, Charles and Meg walking their dog the next day and meeting Calvin (+10) who is there because the forces of the universe want him to be (+10), I’m not joking. The three meeting up with Mrs Who, who tends to borrow quotes from other works as she struggles to communicate in her own (+10)

Calvin coming back to their house (+10) and later the Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and now Mrs Which show up, explaining they may have a way to find their lost father (+10) Meg having a worse reaction to tessering than others. Dr Murray being on a place called Camazotz (+10) which is controlled by a creature called the IT. The idea that Darkness is spreading across the universe and 3 Mrs are among soldiers fighting it (+10) The gifts the 3 Mrs give to Meg (+10) on Camazotz before having to leave (+10) the housing area they run into on Camazotz with the children playing ball in unison and their mothers calling them in at the same time (+10), Charles Wallace ending up possessed by IT (+10), Meg using Mrs Who’s spectacles to find Mr Murray (+10) a first encounter with the IT that goes disastrously and forces Dr Murray to tesser away (+10). Meg using her love for Charles Wallace to rescue him and provide enough light for the Mrs to get her out (+10).

Other details the film adhered to include that Mrs Whatsit had been stealing blankets (+5), Meg’s feelings of self-loathing (+5), the food given to the children in Camazotz that Charles Wallace couldn’t taste (+5) the (kinda silly) revelation that many of Earth’s greatest historical figures have been champions fighting against the Darkness (+5)

200 points in total but let’s get to the changes, shall we

What they changed:

Meg’s character arc is given a lot more focus in the film, we see more of her at school including her reactions to a girl named Veronica (-5) who, and I’m not kidding here, put a note on her locker saying she wished Meg had disappeared too. She does her the unbearable harm of *gasp* passing a basketball to her; I mean it hit her face, but only because she didn’t catch it, and given the number people around, I assume in basketball, that was a lesson objective.

Getting chewed out by her mother doesn’t happen in the book (-5). In the book, Meg attacks one of the students for calling Charles Wallace dumb and basically receives no repercussions at all, her mother defends her to the ‘victim’s’ parents.

Mrs Whatsit’s appearance happened on the same night as the storm in the book (-5), the film makes the line ‘wild nights are my glory’ make less sense in doing things differently. Charles was preparing cocoa for 4. It’s Mrs Murray who opens the door, providing her shelter and not Charles Wallace (-5) as it is in the film, guess they felt they should make it even more creepy.

Mrs Whatsit also seems a lot more unsure towards Meg in the film, implying the darkness may have already infected her. (-5) This backfires somewhat when she describes Meg’s faults a beautiful later on. Mrs Which can speak normally in the film, heaven forbid Oprah have the sort of stutter like Mrs Which had in the book (-5) I actually can see why that might’ve gotten annoying though.

Mr Murray has gone from being part of a secret government project to a guy who wasn’t believed when he lectured his ideas and tessered from his own home (-5). The only real difference it made is is allowed Mrs Murray to be part of the project too, and explains why she would know what a tesseract is.

Calvin has gone for being one of 11 brothers who don’t seem to care about him to a guy with an overbearing father (-5) I do feel 11 brothers is a little excessive and hard to swallow in this day and age but Calvin is a non-character in both the book and the film anyway. The 3 Mrs knew where Mr Murray was in the book, so there’s no dilly-dallying, no flowers that speak colour (-5) and no balancing lesson with the happy medium although I’ll get back to that (-5) it’s explained that the 3 Mrs were once stars who gave up their eternal forms in the fight against the darkness, they take the form of, basically Centaurs. I know the book specifically states that they weren’t Centaurs, but they’re Centuars, with wings. Not the giant cabbage leaf Mrs Whatsit turned into in the film (-5)

The 3 Mrs in the books were more than happy to send the 3 kids into danger, in the film they were about to take them home when Meg somehow took over their tesser. I think this is bullsh*t. (-5)

The scene with Meg and Calvin running from a tornado is film only (-5) and the nature of Camazotz is changed dramatically. It was a regular planet, far as I could tell, in the book, but in the film it seems to be able change itself on a whim, presenting numerous weird scenarios to the children. (-5) The Tornado makes little sense as just after Mrs Which tells them not to separated, Charles Wallace is immediately separated and out of danger.

I don’t really think this film got IT, or the IT, which this film calls IT to not confuse IT with killer clowns. IT’s entire purpose in the book is conformity. Everyone is the same, they feel and think the same and if they are different, they die. He says that no-one knows pain and suffering, no-one knows illness (since if they get ill, they die), there’s no violence or war. What I’m saying is the beach scene, with the multi-coloured umbrellas makes absolutely no sense (-5) unsurprisingly it’s a film only addition.  Charles Wallace succumbing to the IT is handled differently in the book (-5), something we’ll get to.

Charles Wallace wasn’t adopted in the book (-5) I think this change was mostly about him fitting in with the race of the actors. Also, anything at the end of the film that gave it any sense of closure is film only (-5)

90 points lost, leaving us with 110 adaptation points as we go into

What they left out

Meg had twin older brothers in the book (-10) their contribution to the plot is… nothing, but they’re not in the film, so that’s an adaptation fail.

Instead of flying around following flowers, in the book they took flowers for extra oxygen (just go with it) and headed into the high atmosphere, so they could see the darkness on Camazotz clearly (-10), they’re then taken to the Happy Medium who shows them the darkness swarming around earth, only barely being kept at bay (-10) it’s here where it’s explained about famous figures from Earth’s history being involved, they didn’t wait till the end (-5)

All 3 of the children got gifts from the 3 Mrs in the books. Calvin got his ability to communicate strengthened by Mrs Whatsit, a quote from the tempest from Mrs Who and an additional command to ‘take care of Meg’ from Mrs Which (-10). Charles Wallace got the resilience of his childhood from Mrs Whatsit, a quote from Goethe, warning him that he does not know everything, and a warning from Mrs Which to beware his pride and arrogance (-10)

In the book, they were told to go straight to the city, to CENTRAL Central Intelligence (-10) (redundant much?) it’s here where they first encounter someone possessed by IT. Charles Wallace, wanting to know more offers himself up, believing he could get out and it turns out he’s oh so very wrong (-10)

Dr Murray could barely tesser in the book (-5) and although he does so, it’s only thanks to Mrs Which’s spectacles he stays in the same star system (-5), he takes Meg with him in the book (-5) but she remains frozen for a while until the natives of the planet they were on come to help (-10) Aunt Beast is not in the film, in the book she helps Meg back to health (-10). The 3 Mrs then show up and it’s realised that only Meg knows Charles Wallace well enough to save him from IT (-10) she is sent, with new gifts from the Mrs (-10) and realises that love is her true power against IT

130 lost leaving this adaptation with a -20 point score

It’s the first to get a negative score as an adaptation, and it’s not unclear why, the plot of this film changes the book drastically in an attempt to modernise the story and perhaps differentiate it from the 2003 TV series. I’m honestly not sure why they bothered with this one, but at the very least the child actors should get decent work out of it. It’s not their fault this was a dud.