a wrinkle in time movie review

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Parents' guide to, a wrinkle in time.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 107 Reviews
• Kids Say 103 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Inclusive but imperfect take on classic story of hope, love.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that A Wrinkle in Time is director Ava DuVernay's adaptation of author Madeleine L'Engle's classic children's fantasy book. The tween-friendly movie follows brilliant 13-year-old Meg Murry (Storm Reid), her genius little brother, and her friend on an epic, perilous journey to find her…

Why Age 10+?

A girl slams a ball into a classmate's face after being provoked by cruel commen

A couple of marital kisses. Some flirting, hand-holding, and a cathartic hug bet

"Shut up," plus some bullying that involves cruel comments by a few teens.

Any Positive Content?

Messages about finding and staying in the light, embracing your uniqueness, reco

Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which are inspiring, optimistic, generous, kind

Parents need to know that A Wrinkle in Time is director Ava DuVernay 's adaptation of author Madeleine L'Engle's classic children's fantasy book . The tween-friendly movie follows brilliant 13-year-old Meg Murry ( Storm Reid ), her genius little brother, and her friend on an epic, perilous journey to find her long-missing father. They're guided on their dangerous voyage across time and space by three supernatural beings: Mrs. Whatsit ( Reese Witherspoon ), Mrs. Who ( Mindy Kaling ), and Mrs. Which ( Oprah Winfrey ). Like the book it's based on, the movie features some intense scenes of peril: Kids nearly plunge to their deaths, are whisked away in a twister, or are stuck for eternity, and there's a scary moment when three people are dragged to an evil overlord. But while the kids are bruised and knocked down, no one dies or is seriously injured, and the frightening moments are temporary. The movie, which is remarkably diverse, promotes positive messages about trusting in your abilities, asking for help, and believing in the power of love. Courage, perseverance, and teamwork are also themes.

To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Violence & Scariness

A girl slams a ball into a classmate's face after being provoked by cruel comments. Kids encounter dangerous/threatening situations in which they nearly plunge to their deaths, are whisked away in a twister, or are stuck for eternity. A frightening moment when three people are dragged to an evil overlord. A child is taken and somewhat possessed by darkness. The child, with darkness flowing through him, hurts his sister several times via telekinesis.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple of marital kisses. Some flirting, hand-holding, and a cathartic hug between young teens.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Messages about finding and staying in the light, embracing your uniqueness, recognizing the importance of love, and being brave enough to be a warrior who fights the darkness, however it might manifest itself. Also promotes strong family bonds, trusting friendships, and empathy for those who are different from you. Courage, perseverance, and teamwork are themes. A couple of moments involving iffy parenting/responsibility decisions by Meg and Charles Wallace's dad.

Positive Role Models

Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which are inspiring, optimistic, generous, kind-hearted guides who help Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace find Dr. Murry and fight the darkness. They're wise, patient, and funny. Meg is brilliant, clever, beautiful, kind (one of the rare movies to portray a girl, particularly nonwhite girl, as lead character with science/math aptitude and extraordinary skills), but also insecure and sad. Calvin is brave, helpful, understanding; he encourages and supports Meg, likes her for more than superficial reasons. Meg's mother is brilliant, loving, empathetic. Meg's father is an ambitious genius and is selfless, though he does appear to choose his passion over his family in one respect, and he struggles with saving both of his children. Strong gender and racial/ethnic representation, with characters who are multicultural, African American, South Asian, and white/European.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (107)
• Kids say (103)

Based on 107 parent reviews

Not Even Close to the Book

What's the story.

A WRINKLE IN TIME is director Ava DuVernay 's adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's beloved 1962 Newbery Medal-winning fantasy book . It tells the story of 13-year-old Meg Murry ( Storm Reid ), a middle schooler who's been floundering since the disappearance of her renowned physicist father, Dr. Alex Murry ( Chris Pine ), four years earlier. After a public confrontation with a mean-girl bully, Meg is surprised to find that she's made a new friend, Calvin O'Keeffe ( Levi Miller ). Meg's genius little brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe), introduces Meg and Calvin to Mrs. Whatsit ( Reese Witherspoon ), Mrs. Who ( Mindy Kaling ), and Mrs. Which ( Oprah Winfrey ), all of whom reveal that Meg and Charles Wallace's dad isn't dead. But to save him, they must travel across time and space to rescue him from an encroaching darkness called "The It." On different planets, the trio of kids follow intergalactic breadcrumbs to search for Dr. Murry, but the darkness threatens each step they take, putting their lives -- and their ability to return to Earth -- in danger.

Is It Any Good?

This big-hearted adaptation's payoff is more emotional than technical, but, thanks to touching performances, inclusive themes, and inspiring messages, it's easy to appreciate it. Meg is now a biracial middle schooler who's struggling to fit in at her school. Like many teens who feel out of place, she's a lonely misfit who suffers under the wrath of the popular girls, who enjoy tormenting her about her appearance, her interests, and even her father's disappearance. Reid's nuanced performance is lovely, and her vulnerability as Meg underscores the character's development from untrusting cynic to confident warrior. Meanwhile, all three of the actresses playing the Mesdames are obviously having fun in their gorgeous, vibrant costumes and imaginative personas. Kaling's Mrs. Who, who speaks in famous quotes, no longer pulls just from Western classics but also from OutKast, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rumi, and Buddha. Winfrey might as well be Mrs. Which, a wise and supernaturally beloved being who dispenses inspirational one-liners. And Witherspoon's Mrs. Whatsit adds levity to the mix as the flirty, jokey member of the trio. Pine and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (who plays Meg and Charles Wallace's mother) are also quite good.

That said, the movie does -- like Meg's experience with time-and-space travel -- have some distinctly bumpy patches. The pacing is uneven: The setup feels rushed, and, unlike Calvin and Meg's relationship in the books, their connection in the movie feels a bit like an "insta-crush" (although it's still sweet). And then there's the script, which includes some clunky exchanges (a couple between Calvin and Meg, as well as between Meg and her principal, plus several courtesy of Charles Wallace, who can be off-putting). Charles Wallace's giftedness turns into major creepiness in a possessed-child sequence that might be too scary for younger kids (and too campy and uncomfortable for adults). But all of these missteps don't take away from the fact Meg's coming-of-age story is a universal, relatable hero's journey that's likely to resonate with fans of kid heroes who discover they have the power to do the extraordinary.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the role models in A Wrinkle in Time . What character strengths do they display? How do Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace demonstrate courage , teamwork , and perseverance ?

Talk about the importance of representation in the film. Why is it good for all kids/people to see minorities, including girls, as main characters in books, movies, and TV shows?

How does this take on A Wrinkle in Time compare with others you might have seen? What do you think about the changes or updates from the book? Why do you think the filmmakers made those changes?

Why do you think Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg the "gift" of her faults? How can your flaws help you in certain cases? How do they help Meg?

In the story, how are hope and love the ultimate way of defeating the darkness? How does that darkness manifest itself in different ways, every day, on Earth? According to the "Mrs." characters, how can we help combat the darkness?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 9, 2018
• On DVD or streaming : June 5, 2018
• Cast : Oprah Winfrey , Mindy Kaling , Reese Witherspoon , Chris Pine , Storm Reid
• Director : Ava DuVernay
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black directors, Female actors, Black actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Book Characters , Brothers and Sisters , Friendship
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 109 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements and some peril
• Last updated : June 4, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘a wrinkle in time’: film review.

'A Wrinkle in Time,' Ava DuVernay's adaptation of the classic children's novel, boasts a starry cast including Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling and Chris Pine.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Only the faintest glimmers of genuine, earned emotion pierce through the layers of intense calculation that encumber Ava DuVernay’s   A Wrinkle in Time . Disney’s lavish adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s fantastical 1962 book (there were four sequels) about a girl’s journey through multiple dimensions to find her long-missing father may provide enough distractions to keep kids in the lowest double-digits age range interested. All the same,  DuVernay’s first big-budget studio extravaganza after breaking through with Selma and the great documentary 13th feels cobbled together with many diverse parts rather that coalesced into an engaging whole. Even if this is widely consumed by the target audience, it doesn’t charm or disarm.

The film centers on 13-year-old Meg (Storm Reid), who has a black mother ( Gugu Mbatha-Raw ), a white father (Chris Pine) — the latter a scientist who’s been missing for four years — and a mixed-race 6-year-old adopted brother, Charles Wallace ( Deric McCabe). Then there’s the trio of benevolent, diverse and other-worldly overseers ( Oprah Winfrey , Reese Witherspoon , Mindy Kaling ) who evidently have nothing better to do wherever they come from than to facilitate Meg’s inter-galactic search for her dad and to utter endless self-esteem-raising platitudes like “You can do this!” and “You are a warrior!”

Release date: Mar 09, 2018

Although Meg is very bright, like everyone else in her family, she hasn’t been the same since Dad disappeared. Little Charles Wallace, who’s always referred to by both names, is a real smarty pants (he has all the best lines, and McCabe does a nice job with them) and exasperates Meg. Meg also has an ever-attentive and cute would-be boyfriend, Calvin (Levi Miller).

When the three women — Mrs. Which (Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who ( Kaling ) — suddenly materialize much in the manner of the Good Witch from the North in you-know-what, Meg is enlightened about the existence of something called the tesser , a warp in time and space that might enable her to find her father on the other side, where he’s suspected to be trapped. Charles Wallace and Calvin are not about to be left behind, and so the journey begins.

What comes thereafter is, unfortunately, not anywhere nearly as eventful, enchanting or musically beguiling as its old Hollywood precursor. The challenging events facing the inter-galactic explorers, both stemming from the book and dreamed up by scenarists Jennifer Lee (Disney’s screenwriting queen ever since Frozen ) and Jeff Stockwell ( The Bridge to Terabithia ), mostly feel rote, arbitrary rather than organic and, in the end, uninteresting; when in doubt, they always find another platitude.

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Why 'a wrinkle in time' is the movie girls of color need (guest column).

The three “Mrs.” characters, who change makeup and wardrobe styles incessantly, are unequally balanced: Witherspoon has far more dialogue and screen time than the others and before long becomes annoyingly overbearing; Winfrey kind of floats through much of it making banal pronouncements, such as, “If we do not act soon, darkness will fall across the universe”; and  Kaling has unfairly little to say or do.

The film is most tolerable when it remains centered on the three kids, their bickering and their underlying “there for you” inter-dependency. Meg is appealing because you know that behind her reticence lies a smart and resourceful girl who will one day be able to fully assert herself without having to be told every five minutes that, “You just have to have faith in who you are.” Calvin remains too blandly “nice” to be an interesting character but fills the bill as eye candy for younger teen girls, while Charles Wallace is, by the film’s modest standards, something of a hoot as the preternaturally sharpest kid in the neighborhood, be it on Earth or elsewhere.

As the pic jumps from one unidentified world to another, there are certainly sights to behold — a flying dragon, weird and gorgeous landscapes, the Mrs.’ constant makeup and wardrobe changes and an encounter with a character played by Zach Galifianakis whose utterances are about as amusing his name, Happy Medium. But after impressing so with her earlier work both in features and documentaries, what’s disconcerting here is DuVernay’s inability to forge a strong or supple visual style. Most scenes are dominated by far too much cutting between shots that bear no spatial relationships to one another, to the point where the compositions look arbitrary; it all seems manufactured rather than crafted, with scenes played and over-edited to visually busy but indifferent effect.

As a result, one’s engagement with the likeable enough characters starts flagging in the final third as the air escapes the balloon. On top of that, the bromides about the primacy of family and being true to yourself are signaled, but not earned.

Production company: Whitaker Entertainment Distributor: Buena Vista Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling , Storm Reid, Levi Miller, Deric McCabe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw , Michael Pena, Zach Galifianakis , Chris Pine, Andre Holland, Rowan Blanchard Director: Ana DuVernay Screenwriters: Jennifer Lee, Jeff Stockwell , based on the novel by Madeleine L’Engle Producers: Jim Whitaker, Catherine Hand Executive producers: Doug Merrifield , Adam Borba Director of photography: Tobias Schliessler Production designer: Naomi Shohan Costume designer: Paco Delgado Editor: Spencer Averick Music: Ramin Djawadi Visual effects supervisor: Rich McBride Casting: Aisha Coley

Rated PG, 110 minutes

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• User reviews

A Wrinkle in Time

After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him. After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him. After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings send Meg, her brother, and her friend to space in order to find him.

• Ava DuVernay
• Jennifer Lee
• Jeff Stockwell
• Madeleine L'Engle
• Oprah Winfrey
• Reese Witherspoon
• 692 User reviews
• 283 Critic reviews
• 53 Metascore
• 5 wins & 17 nominations

Top cast 54

• Mrs. Whatsit

• Charles Wallace

• Happy Medium

• Principal Jenkins

• Veronica Kiley

• Camazotz Woman

• Elegant Man

• Mrs. Teacher

• Mr. Teacher

• Calvin's Father
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Over the entrance to Mrs. Who's (Mindy Kaling's) house is a street-number sign with the eight hanging lopsided, forming an infinity symbol.
• Goofs In several scenes, Meg's glasses do not have any lenses in them.

Dr. Alex Murry : What if we are here for a reason. What if we are part of something truly divine.

• Crazy credits The Walt Disney Pictures logo is affected by a tesseract.
• Connections Featured in 75th Golden Globe Awards (2018)
• Soundtracks Let Me Live Written by Denisia "Blu June" Andrews, Brittany "Chi" Coney, Ali Payami , and Kehlani (as Kehlani Parrish) Produced by Nova Wav and Ali Payami Performed by Kehlani Courtesy of Tsunami Mob/Atlantic Recording Corp.

User reviews 692

So disappointing..

• barbara_4553
• Mar 18, 2018
• How long is A Wrinkle in Time? Powered by Alexa
• March 9, 2018 (United States)
• United States
• Disney Plus
• Official Site
• Nếp Gấp Thời Gian
• Wanaka, Otago, New Zealand
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Whitaker Entertainment I
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $100,000,000 (estimated)
• $100,478,608
• $33,123,609
• Mar 11, 2018
• $132,675,864
• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes

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