BC has adapted Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 classic children's tale A Wrinkle in Time as a three-hour made-for-television movie, which will air as a Wonderful World of Disney presentation. The film opens with Meg (Stuart) looking at the stars and thinking about her father.
Her brilliant astrophysicist father, Dr. Jack Murry (Chris Potter), vanished without a trace a year earlier, and her whole family has been affected by his absence. Her mother, Dana (Sarah-Jane Redmond), a brilliant scientist in her own right, believes her husband will come back. Her gifted 6-year-old brother, Charles Wallace (Dorfman), doesn't speak to anyone outside the family and can read some people's minds.
And then there's Meg. She's having trouble with the teachers and kids at school, and is worried about the torment Charles Wallace gets from the other kids because he won't talk. When she gets in a fight to protect him, Calvin (Smith), a boy from her school, helps her.
One dark, stormy night, Meg finds Charles Wallace up making cocoa. Their mom ends up joining them. Suddenly, a crow flies into the house and turns into a strange woman named Mrs. Whatsit (Woodard). Charles Wallace seemed to know she was coming. After some cocoa and raiding the fridge, she leaves as quickly as she arrived, mentioning the "tesseract" as she departs. Dana knows that the tesseract was something her husband was working on before he vanished.
The next day, Calvin finds himself drawn to Meg's house. Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace are instructed by an image in the television to go outside, where they find Mrs. Whatsit. She tells them that they have a chance to save Dr. Murry, but only if they go with her. They travel through a "wrinkle in time" to another planet and soon discover that there's more at stake than Meg and Charles Wallace's dad. They learn from Mrs. Whatsit, and two others like her, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, that a darkness covers many planets and it's expanding to encompass the Earth. As Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace search for Dr. Murry, they will find themselves facing the darkness itself in a battle that may cost them their lives.
Time turns out to be pure Disney
ABC's long-awaited adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time is a perfect choice to be a Wonderful World of Disney presentation. It has sympathetic characters on a daring yet magical mission that will test each of them in ways they never expected, forcing them to overcome their deepest fears to save those they love. It's pure Disney, even if it isn't a perfect movie.
A Wrinkle in Time more or less follows the events in the novel, with plenty of updating to make the story more timely. While the tale still feels dated, the young cast does an excellent job in making us care about these characters and what happens to them. Katie Stuart is perfect as Meg, an unhappy young girl who desperately wants to find her father, and David Dorfman, a superb little actor, shines as the bright Charles Wallace. The two young stars get plenty of backup from Gregory Smith as Calvin O'Keefe and a cast filled with some very fine character actors, including Kate Nelligan and Alfre Woodard.
While the excellent cast does its work well, there are points of awkwardness in both the storytelling and the special effects that mar the otherwise well-told tale. The villain, the Prime Coordinator, played by Kyle Secor, never really comes to life, which makes the ending anticlimactic. As for the special effects, they are uneven at best, although there are a lot of
them. Some enhance the magic of the story, such as Mrs. Whatsit's colorful trip to Earth, and some don't, such as the white-winged horse creature Mrs. Whatsit turns into.
Despite those problems, the younger set will enjoy this love-affirming story. Wisely, ABC decided to make this a three-hour movie, instead of a longer, bloated four-hour miniseries that would run over two nights and add nothing to the tale. While it ends a little late for the kids (ending at 11 p.m. ET), parents can tape it and watch it with their children on another day
at an earlier time. It's worth the effort.
