There are two ways of thinking about A Wrinkle in Time (2018).  On the one hand, it is a bunch of made-up insanity that smacks of other stories.  For example, the three guides in it, known as the “Misses,” are Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling).  I imagine these might have different names in Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel on which this is based. Yet, when she tried to explain these appellations to her editors, the way they appear in the final product were the responses.  As for what the story emulates, while watching A Wrinkle in Time my mind kept bringing up The NeverEnding Story (1984).  The other way of looking at it is as a heartwarming tale of hope and love and how they encompass the universe.  While certainly less cynical than my first few sentences, this alternative, though more positive, is frustrating for a Catholic film reviewer.  You will have to read on to find out why.

In his home laboratory, Dr. Alexander Murry (Chris Pine) is about to discover A Wrinkle in Time with his little daughter, Meg Murry (Lyric Wilson).  He is working on a method of exploring the depths of the universe without the need of space travel.  One just has to find the right frequency and you can go anywhere.  The secret is love.  Apparently, he figured out how to do so, and suddenly disappears one day for a far-off place in the cosmos.  Four years go by, and the now teenaged Meg (Storm Reid) misses her father every day.  At home, she has a great support system, with her mother, Dr. Kate Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and younger brother, Charles Wallace Murry (Deric McCabe), encouraging her not to give up hope.  As nice as this is, these sentiments do not seem to help much at school, where she is bullied by her peers . . . who think it is acceptable to make fun of her grief over her lost father?  Huh?  And then Charles Wallace (as he is referred to in the movie, but henceforth I will just write Charles) overhears some of his teachers talking about how crazy was their father, and how Charles is different?  Look, there are a lot of fantastical things happening in this film, but this is arguably the strangest.  At any rate, Charles reminds the adults how great is Meg, and then tells his sister so in front of her classmates.  When Meg’s main tormentor, Veronica Kiley (Rowan Blanchard), makes a taunt about Dr. Murry’s disappearance, Meg throws a basketball in Veronica’s face.  This earns both the Wallace kids a trip to the principal’s office, and a further reprimand from Meg’s mother.  In mid-lecture, the doorbell rings and Charles answers it.  At the door is Mrs. Whatsit, and though a stranger to everyone else, she seems to know Charles.  She then launches into talking about parallel universes and “tessering” before mom ushers her out the door.  The following day, Meg gets some emotional reinforcement from Calvin O’Keefe (Levi Miller), a fellow student who has a crush on her.  As they are talking about events, Charles beckons them to come with him to meet Mrs. Who.  With the events of the previous day in mind, Meg is not eager to indulge anymore of Charles antics.  Besides, Mrs. Who only speaks in quotes, adding to her enigma.  Charles excitedly tells them that this is how they can find his and Meg’s dad.  Meg is still skeptical until they return home and are visited once more by Mrs. Whatsit, who is there to prepare them for the arrival of Mrs. Who.  With the trio completed, it is time for them to tesser (the root word is “tesseract,” which is, apparently, not just something from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)) to another galaxy.  The experience is great for everyone but Meg, who lands on a beautiful planet with the Misses and her friends, but feeling like she had just been physically beaten.  The splendor of their new surroundings quickly evaporates the pain.  The question now is: how do they start looking for Dr. Murry.  Mrs. Whatsit suggests that they ask the sentient flowers nearby because, you know, why not?  After Meg shows them a picture of her dad, they drift off in a vague direction.  Climbing onto the back of Mrs. Whatsit, who has changed into an anthropomorphic, flying leaf for some reason, they go where the flowers seem to point, but are disturbed by an angry looking, tentacled black blob in the sky.  Mrs. Who informs them that this is Camazotz, the source of all evil in the universe known as the “IT.”  Feeling like they are still no closer to finding Dr. Murry, our band follow Mrs. Whatsit’s suggestion that they consult her boyfriend (I guess?), the seer known as the Happy Medium (Zach Galifianakis).  It takes Meg coping with some of her feelings about her dad for her to be able to accept the guidance necessary to figure out Dr. Murry’s location with Happy Medium’s help.  When they do, they are horrified to learn that Dr. Murry is on (in?) Camazotz.  The Misses claim they cannot help, and insist on returning to Earth to formulate a plan.  It is the force of Meg’s will that gets them to Tesser to Camazotz.  Before the Misses depart (because, you know, light cannot exist in darkness), they give the kids gifts to help them in their journey.  Unfortunately, the IT gets Charles when they are accosted by IT’s manifestation, Red (Michael Peña).  The IT corrupts Charles, forcing Calvin and Meg to follow him deeper into Camazotz.  While this does result in Meg finally reuniting with her dad, the IT hungers for her.  Dr. Murry wants to get Meg away before she can be consumed, but this would mean leaving Charles behind.  She will not do this, and so stays to confront the IT.  She triumphs with the power love, basically shouting “I love you” multiple times at her possessed brother to free him.  The Misses then appear and bring everyone back home.

In the introduction to this review of A Wrinkle in Time, I mentioned that there are some good aspects to the film, but that it is ultimately frustrating for a Catholic reviewer.  The good pertains to its discussion of love as a force that unites the universe.  That is a concept Christianity teaches, and there are other moments that align with our ideologies.  The maddening part is that the film never makes the connections a Christian might want from it.  Further, instead of talking about Creation, or our own births, as intentional, it suggests that it is all a cosmic fluke.  It is nice that it emphasizes how special we are that we should exist at all, but it is a matter of chance and nothing more.  That is on the complete opposite end of Christian thought, which says the Creator of everything, all the imaginative beauty we see in the movie, also specifically made you.  Setting aside the heretical parts, and also those that speak to the power love, I would like to instead focus on how the film gets things almost right.  I may have said this in a recent review, but since Lent I have been doing the “Catechism in a Year” podcast with Father Mike Schmitz.  One of the recent episodes talked about how those cultures and traditions that historically had no knowledge of God nonetheless found ways of expressing His existence.  Of course, they are pale imitations of the Mother Church, which has the most fullness of Truth, but we can see the Creator, even if dimly, at work anywhere we turn in the universe.  This is comforting and dangerous.  It speaks to what is widely accepted about God, and I appreciate the film’s emphasis on the fullness of love.  God is love.  At the same time, seeing God without any kind of framework can lead to errors.  It is true that there is so much about the Almighty we do not understand.  Even the Church accepts that Jesus is mystery.  Yet, we have to be careful about how we express it because it can mean hard to understand movies like this one.

A Wrinkle in Time references Buddhism and Hinduism, and yet steers clear of Christianity.  As discussed, much of what is talked about in it can be found in what God has handed down to us through the Church.  As I explored in the last paragraph, the fact that we do not want to admit to this fact is the result of human error.  If you are to watch this movie, I recommend understanding Faith first.  If nothing else, it will give you some grounding.