This one has been coming down the pipes for a while, a loooong while. I purposefully kept putting it off because I had no idea where to go with the review. Also, I know it is not technically Friday as I'm writing this, but I wanted to watch the film to give it the most equal comparing I could... I stand by my earlier advice - "Don't."
First off, what did Madeline L'Engle get right?
How about - EVERYTHING!
Her characters are among the most human in kid lit, I think at some point every adolescent girl more or less IS Meg Murry. If you don't relate to Meg you are probably someone on a dark planet... in which case, do you even read? And Calvin O'Keefe? I had once thought I only ever had one fictional crush but... I think Calvin might need to be one of my mental measuring sticks. Charles Wallace, he is a hard one to get a grasp on, purposefully though as he is supposed to be new.
Then there are the Mrs, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which. When I was younger they seemed ancillary characters but now I realize that they are more secondary protagonists... and that the older I get the more I turn into some combination of the three. :)
(And of course there is Aunt Beast... whom I love in her uniqueness. She is everything an author could ever hope to create solely from their mind.)
The settings are wonderful. L'Engle is as fine a worldcrafter as Lewis and Tolkien; she can create two worlds where the primary color seems to be grey, but through words alone make them either good places or bad. But really the entire book can be chalked up as great literature due to her prowess with words, she is a builder and they are her tools.
Which brings me to the primary problem with the movie, as Aunt Beast would say, "Think about what they are. This look doesn't help us at all." Madeline L'Engle was a great writer because she knew the power of well chosen words, so much so that when she heard a good thing she put it in. Mrs Who is built upon quotes (every writer's' dream, a way to work in all those brilliant things someone has already said). And then there is the spiritual aspect of the book (which incidentally is not present in the movie), I really liked this spiritual part because it gave me something else to connect to, I felt like this world of science fiction and fantasy was so much closer. The movie was originally going to be a four hour mini-series. It was eventually cut down to a 128 minute movie... and I can think of no better example of 'trimming the fat' then when Mrs Whatsit asks Charles to translate what the creatures are singing. In the book: "Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift their voice; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord!" A few verses from Isaiah do the trick, tying that world to ours in the process. What lengthy yet beautiful translation is given in the movie? "It's about joy."
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