[yasr_overall_rating]
After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him.
Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is a silent, but tempestuous pre-teen whose father disappeared four years ago. Meg’s mother and father are both brilliant NASA scientists and while Mrs. Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is more cautious about groundbreaking technologies, Mr. Murry (Chris Pine) is an impulsive romantic who is willing to risk his family just to shake hands with the universe.
The four-year flashback – just before Mr. Murry disappears – informs us that Meg also had a brand new baby brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), who was adopted into the family. Charles Wallace – always annoyingly referred to by all four syllables – is ALSO brilliant and everyone is pretty certain that Meg is not too shabby herself, except that she’s retreated from her abilities in her grief over the sudden, unexplained loss of her father. Meg is also being bullied at school by a neighbor girl.
Somehow C.W. (because I can’t stomach the constant repetition of his full name) encounters these strange, otherworldly women and he leads Meg to them, saying that they can help them find their father. Thus enter the most colorful characters – Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey). Their costuming is decadent and is probably the most fascinating element of the entire film. But the rest of the story is severely lacking in thematic structure.
The primary conflict is that Mr. Murry is missing. But the secondary problems are Meg’s loss of self-worth, the bullying at school, her violent retribution, taking care of her brother, fighting with her mom, and this random cute boy who shows up by her side one day.
The turning point is when Mrs. Whatsit suddenly appears IN THEIR HOME, uninvited and late in the evening! C.W. seems to know her, but Mrs. Murry and Meg are baffled, though not entirely defensive about the idea of a crazy, colorful stranger in their living room. The next day, C.W. runs away from Meg into what appears to be a dangerous and abandoned house where they meet Mrs. Who, who only speaks in the quotes borrowed from others. Mrs. Which is referred to with absolute reverence and it crosses my mind, “Is it only a coincidence that her name sounds like ‘Mrs. WITCH’ until you observe the pattern of the names of the three women??” (Insert eye-roll emoticon here.) Also, when C.W. goes demonic with the influences of the darkness, I was more than slightly irritated and taken aback by the erratic elements of spiritualism.
Overall, the movie is more like a Disney teen television series gone bad. And that’s really bad in that those sitcoms are pretty terrible already – full of beautiful little teenagers with flawless skin and superhero abilities, but absolutely void of actual character development or story substance. The director (Ava DuVernay) introduces the film with some lofty eloquence about empowering teens and valuing the innocence of childhood, but her words are no more substantial than the storytelling itself and in the end, you only feel like you just made yourself sick from eating too much cotton candy: sugary, colorful, but nothing more than a mirage of delight.
I think what the film is trying to focus on is reminding children of their own inner light in fighting the darkness that always threatens our universal concepts of the beingness. Even so, I only gave the film two stars because I think that’s the actual quality of the film. I threw in an extra half star simply because my 8 and 9 yr. old enjoyed it. I don’t think actual teens will think much of the film, but it’s not bad for a movie rental on family night when the DVD releases in Redbox by next month.
In theaters Friday, March 9th
