It’s weird to see A Wrinkle In Time as a kid’s Disney TV movie. Good weird, some of the time. But the transformation to the screen makes even the mean stuff of the book, the scenes on Camazotz (which used to give me nightmares as a kid) look cheap and somehow funny.
NEWSWEEK: So you’ve seen the movie?
Madeleine L’Engle: I’ve glimpsed it.And did it meet expectations?
Oh, yes. I expected it to be bad, and it is.
But for all that, it’s actually not awful. Watching it recalls the power of the book, the tremendous contrast between family and awful hate, the fierce cynicism of IT and its servants and the aching love of family no matter how fragile.