A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
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A young girl and her brother embark on a cosmic quest with astral travelers to rescue their missing father.
The story
Thirteen-year-old Meg Murry struggles with depression and bullying following the disappearance of her father, a renowned astrophysicist. Her life changes when she discovers her gifted younger brother, Charles Wallace, interacting with a mysterious visitor named Mrs. Whatsit. The visitor reveals that the tesseract, a method of space travel her father was studying, is real. Meg, Charles Wallace, and a classmate named Calvin O'Keefe are eventually led by three astral travelers—Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which—through a tesseract to various distant planets in a desperate attempt to locate the missing man.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Meg Murry, a bullied teenager, and her brother Charles Wallace are joined by Calvin O'Keefe and three astral travelers: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. They travel through tesseracts to the planet Uriel and eventually seek help from a seer named Happy Medium on Orion. They learn Meg's father, Alex, is trapped on the evil planet Camazotz by a malevolent force known as 'the IT'. The Misses bestow gifts on Meg—glasses to see the truth, knowledge of her faults, and a command to never separate—before departing. Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace are separated by a storm and find themselves in a neighborhood of lookalike homes. Charles Wallace is possessed by 'the IT' through a puppet named Red. Meg finds her father imprisoned in a spherical room and reunites with him briefly before they are dragged toward the IT. Meg eventually confronts the IT in its neuron-like form, using her love for her brother to free him from darkness. The IT dissipates, and the Misses return to congratulate them as 'Warriors of Light.' Meg returns home with her father, while Calvin leaves to confront his own father.
- First release year
- 2018
- Runtime (minutes)
- 110
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Ava DuVernay
- Writers
- Jennifer Lee · screenplay; Jeff Stockwell · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Oprah Winfrey · Mrs. Which; Reese Witherspoon · Mrs. Whatsit; Mindy Kaling · Mrs. Who; Storm Reid · Meg Murry; Lyric Wilson · young Meg; Levi Miller · Calvin O'Keefe; Deric McCabe · Charles Wallace Murry; Chris Pine · Dr. Alexander Murry
- Genres
- science fantasy; adventure
- Themes
- love; imperfection; bravery
- Tone and mood
- visually gorgeous; big-hearted; moving
- Premise and plot tags
- time travel; space adventure; fantasy; family
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1962 novel by Madeleine L'Engle
- Franchise connections
- Disney's second film adaptation of L'Engle's novel
- Content notes
- bullying; depression
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb, losing approximately $130.6 million.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 53 · scale: 100 · review count: 52; CinemaScore · score: B · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 75%
- Production trivia
- It was the first $100-million-budget live-action film to be directed by an African-American woman.; Production moved to New Zealand for two weeks of filming in the Southern Alps.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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