Mousy Meg was already getting more attention of late. Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, a Newbery winner in its own right, plays a significant role in Rebecca Stead's (literally and figuratively fantastic) When You Reach Me, which won this year's Newbery. I've enjoyed having that excuse to chat about Wrinkle with bookstore customers. And now, Jeff Stockwell is set to direct a new Wrinkle in Time film. If that means we'll be chatting about L'Engle for a few months, I'm all for it!
This isn't the first film adaptation anyone's done of Wrinkle, but I'm still curious as to how this version will handle the story's particular challenges. In some ways, this is a story that lends itself more to imagining (i.e. reading) than to seeing. Though there's plenty of action, some major sequences focus mostly on ideas or on what's happening in people's minds. There's also [AWIT spoilers ahead] a whole planet of beings who can't see, but who experience the world through senses far beyond those of humans. Yes, we encounter that planet from Meg's point of view, not that of Aunt Beast or any of its other inhabitants, but the idea of a better-than-seeing sense is easier to understand through a book's words than it might be through a movie's images. Then again, maybe it's not a bad thing for us to find ourselves as confounded as Meg does.
I'm one for giving films-of-books a chance (though my list of movies I like better than their books is very, very short). I'm also one for clinging to beloved scenes and lines and quibbling with the changes a movie makes. ("That very night, in Max's room, a forest grew." Is that so hard? And I liked that movie.) But really, even that is just a fun way of expressing affection for a book.
So I'm looking forward to this, at least for the moment. But if Miley Cyrus gets cast as Meg (nothing against you, Miley, but you're no Meg Murry), I'm tessering out of here.
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Maybe we will get lucky and Meg will be empowered for the entire film as opposed to just the last couple of chapters!
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't mind if she has some room to develop. I see your point, though: the major male characters are pretty far ahead of her. At least we have Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which, archetypes though they may be.
ReplyDeleteThis is a book that I'd defintely like to reread in a Now-That-I'm-Older-And-Potentially-Wiser-I-Might-Notice/Comprehend-Things-I-Didn't-As-A-Kid sort of way. But my "To Read" list is already a mile long, so I'm gonna be even older and potentially even wiser by the time I get around to it.
ReplyDeleteI did like it better as a young reader than I did as an adult one, which isn't always the case. But it's definitely worth a reread at any age- and wisdom-level!
ReplyDeleteI think it is really interesting to see the things you missed the first time around! In fact, sometimes thats half the fun!
ReplyDeleteOh, always! Rereading is its own form of time-travel.
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