Beloved for sixty years,A Wrinkle In Timeis a novel that feels ahead of its era. This science-fantasy romp through the cosmos was the novel that put author Madeline L’Engle on the map, and has introduced generations of children to the wonderful weirdness that the genre holds. Three children — Meg Murray, her brother Charles Wallace, and neighbor Calvin O’Keefe — are whisked away on a whimsical, bizarre adventure through space and time on a search for Meg’s missing father. Along the way, Meg discovers more than she thought possible about the universe, and finds that she is capable of more than she ever knew.
There have been two attempts to adaptA Wrinkle In Timefor the screen: a TV movie in 2003, and a feature film in 2018. Both films flopped: neither critics nor audiences could get past the tacky and bizarre special effects of the first attempt; meanwhile, the second turned out to be one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time. In both films, those who lovedL’Engle’s original novelfelt that the screen failed to capture exactly what made the book great. The characters — especially Meg — didn’t resonate. The underlying emotional message felt more preachy than powerful. The sense of wondrous adventure was there, so why is it so hard to adaptA Wrinkle In Time?
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The Meg Conundrum
There’s no doubt thatA Wrinkle In Timecan be read and enjoyedby people of all ages and genders, but its main character is written to resonate deeply with her own demographic. Thirteen-year-old Meg isn’t pretty or approachable. She’s brilliantly intelligent, but she’s awkward, ugly, socially ungraceful, and above all, she’s angry. These aren’t qualities that immediately encourage viewers to sympathize with a character onscreen.
The book allows for more nuance, not just in the introduction, but throughout. Meg has every reason to be angry: her father has vanished and rumors about him are running rampant; she’s ignored by her peers and condescended to by most adults. Because the character has access to Meg’s inner thoughts, it’s easier to understand her anger, and her strong reactions to the way different characters interact with her. It also lets readers see her softer sidewhen it comes to her little brother,as well as truly grasp her intelligence. But even when these things are portrayed onscreen, it would be easy for Meg to initially come across as grating due to her angry, obstinate nature. As such, the movie adaptations have tried to make Meg more likable onscreen — but in doing so, the aspects of her character that so resonated with readers were lost.
The more recent 2018 film came closer to an accurate portrayal. It depicts the bullying and depression that Meg deals with at school, and has her face her imperfections at the film’s climax. But Meg’s emotional journey often feels heavy-handed and preachy. It fails the “show, don’t tell” writing tenet, whereas the book allows for more nuance and subtlety. In the book, we don’t need to see her getting bullied to justify her anger — she’s simply allowed to feel how she feels.
On that note, the novelA Wrinkle In Timeallows Meg to be angry in a way that most media doesn’t for teenage girls. It doesn’t treat her anger as a defect to be fixed, but a challenge to overcome. The narrative allows her to experience that anger and learn how to channel it. It’s a process that happens over the course of the story, rather than a single turning point. By the end, Meg no longer lashes out at the people she cares about, but is able to focus her intense emotion on the love she has for her family. And in doing so, she is able to save her brother from the clutches of the evil force at the heart of the universe. It’s a deeply personal, internal fight — and as such, a hard one to portray if audiences can’t read Meg’s inner thoughts for themselves.
A Human Story In Alien Worlds
A Wrinkle In Timeis more than a simple adventure tale. It is full of lessons — not just about the science and technology that the main characters are using to explore the universe, but about love and live, good and evil. Like so much classic fantasy, a battle between light and dark lies at the heart of the universe, and it’s up tosome unassuming heroesto win it.
But like all science fiction, there is a message in this story as well: good and bad can’t be distinguished at first sight. Things that are scary aren’t always bad; things that seem comfortable can hide dark truths. The latest film made a huge misstep in the former half of this message with the exclusion of Aunt Beast. In the book, this character cares for Meg after she finds herself frightened and hurt on a foreign world. Aunt Beast is described as horrifying in appearance, but is kind, gentle, and nurses Meg back to health. The planet of Camazotz, on the other hand, looks just like any familiar suburb on the surface, but has succumbed to the evil of the universe and has a dark, evil aura surrounding it.
Bothfilm versions have missed the markwhen it came down to the emotional message at the heart ofA Wrinkle In Time. Both focused heavily on the visual portrayal of the magical, whimsical, and/or unsettling environments described in the book. This isn’t necessarily a negative in itself: film is a visual medium, and many readers have dreamed of seeing Camazotz or Ixchel brought to life. But in doing so, both films were so caught up with creating alien worlds that the human characters were brushed aside. The result is that the characters and their emotional journeys feel secondary to the settings.
Once again, it comes down to the lack of an internal narrative. Thenovel allows readersto experience in real time with Meg how her perceptions of the universe change. In the end,A Wrinkle In Timeis a journey that readers experience through Meg’s eyes, through her thoughts and fears and desires. When translated to the screen, we become outside observers, no longer privy to these things. It’s harder to sympathize and connect with her, no matterhow great the film’s visual effects are. Good science fiction is about great adventures across space and time — but great science fiction is also about the people who undertake those journeys, and the philosophy of the universe that they come away with.
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