Here are some photos from last night’s London premiere (European premiere, is what they’re calling it) of A Wrinkle In Time. AWIT debuted domestically last weekend and, like everything else, it got steamrolled by Black Panther. It debuted with a $33 million opening – respectable, but Disney probably expected better. Considering Disney owns AWIT AND Black Panther, I think it might be fine. Like, AWIT isn’t going to lose money. It won’t be embarrassing for anyone. That being said, AWIT is also suffering from a lack of critical acclaim – I’ve read some flat-out bad reviews and heard word-of-mouth negative buzz on this film. Anyway, here’s some fashion from the London premiere.
Mindy Kaling in Temperley London. You guys, I kind of hate this dress? I give Mindy credit for getting all dressed up so soon after she gave birth, but her dress at the VF party was so much better. This has too much stuff, with the sheer sleeves/ruffle and the weird vase/flower design on the bodice. She would look better – and has looked better, consistently – in cleaner, less fussy looks.
Props to Oprah’s stylist, because this is like the fifth outfit in a row where I’ve thought, “Yes, I would love to own that and I would wear the f–k out of it.” I love the skirt SO MUCH.
Storm Reid in Prada. She’s 14 years old, so I think this is perfect. A perfect party/prom dress for a teenager.
Reese Witherspoon in Elie Saab. I think this is fine but I absolutely loathe the sleeves/puffy shoulders.
Reese’s daughter Ava Phillippe is SO pretty. She wore RED Valentino.
Ava DuVernay in Prada. Love the color! This is just a well-cut, well-constructed dress.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It’s not a very good movie unfortunately. The young girl, Storm Reid is a good actress and Chris Pine has some good moments but it’s just not very good.
The script is rough, the special effects are “meh” and unfortunately Ava made the decision to shoot way too much of the movie in close up. It makes a supposedly Universe-spanning story seem tiny. It won’t get a sequel with that box office and that’s fine. Moving on.
As many many maaaaany sequel spanning movies should have taught us by now, reviews are irrelevant to building a franchise. The only thing that matters is the box office. As it turns out, this one probably won’t spawn a film sequel although who knows what can happen were Netflix to buy the rights. That said Ava didn’t sound like she was spoiling for sequels. Quite the opposite. She said they headhunted her and she accepted so that the door is flung open for directors who look like her and casts that look like this, in this genre. So in the same way that Black Panther was a product of Hancock, this fIlm will birth greatness.
I agree. Adult fans of the book will not like this film, with its weak, dumbed down script and decision to focus on micro-drama over macro-drama. It’s okay for kids though, and Storm Reid is delightful. It made me happy to see a young black girl represented as a bona fide hero in film. I look forward to seeing what she, and Ava Duvernay, do next.
Kaling has been messing with her lips, right? Theyre way puffier than they used to be.
I’m probably one of the few, but I hated the book. So no way will I see the movie. Plus, its at 37% on rotten tomatoes. No thank you.
I seriously love ava DuVernay’s red carpet style. Now I want to see street clothes photos. If those are as good she’s my new style inspiration
I agree, she always looks fantastic.
I like all the looks although I’d say Oprah’s is my least favorite. It looks oddly casual compared to everyone else. Mindy’s is beautiful, I think if she’d pulled her hair back she’d be perfect from head to toe.
Ava Duvernay put it very well. Nobody expects a kids adventure fIlm helmed by a black girl and promoted by three women of color and one white women all over the age of 35 to be a box office hit. We aren’t there yet. Kids fantasy adventure films even when made by and targeted at white boys are rarely box massive office busters. They tend to live AFTER the big screen on TV, DVDs and now streaming. She said her goal was to put this out in the world for everyone looking for it now and in the future. It will make its cash back and make a profit once the International market tickets come in but much more important to me that this film exists on the first place
It wasn’t the diversity that kept receipts low it was the script. There was a lot of excitement for this movie because of the love for the book. It just isn’t that great of a movie sadly.
Blaming the film’s lack of success on the diversity is a little cheap, tbh. I think if anything, it’s been established that diverse projects can and do have an audience—if they are good. My husband and I bonded on our first date over how AWIT was one of our favorite books, yet neither of us has any real desire to see the film. It doesn’t look good, and the reviews are pretty much in the toilet. Who would wanna spend fifty bucks to see something with terrible word of mouth?!
Yes, it was the script, and resulting lack of story and character development (Mrs. Murray, Charles Wallace, and Calvin were moving cardboard cutouts). It had many strong ingredients for success, including a great cast, but one insurmountable flaw.
Indeed! Just a terrible script and a terrible movie. Keep it real! Especially, in the face of the success of the MC BP movie.
Ava may have been managing her own expectations on that one. A truly great film, however diverse, would have done well at the box office. Look at Black Panther. This movie was middling. I went in expecting to love it and came out with a “meh.”
Many great films don’t do that well at box office and lots of horrible movies make lots of money. I don’t even have time to name half the oscar winning films whose box office take was quite modest.
I thought it was a perfectly fine kids movie. I think the problem is the book is not nearly as popular today as it was in the 60s and 70s, which means a lot of adults looking for a film adaptation of a beloved childhood novel we’re left flat because they were expecting a movie for them.
@FROME no studio, not even Disney spends $100 million (before promotion and advertising) on a movie they don’t expect to at least give a modest return. That would be insane.
It’s not a good movie. That’s all. Not uncommon! The true test of “diversity and equality” is whether this movie fails but Ava still gets another chance to direct. For example “Pan” lost far more money than this will (HUGE loss) but the director Joe Wright went on to do Darkest Hour which won Gary Oldman his Oscar and made money. That’s what to watch for here, that POC and women are treated the same in success and failure.
The film cost more than 200 million if you include advertisement and the novel it is based on is virtually unknown in many parts of the world. For it to make profit box office would have to be at least 400 million and I don’t see that happening.
Disney and everyone else did expect this to be a hit. Before the rumblings that it wasn’t very good started, it was tracking for a 55 million+ opening weekend. Even once the poor reviews came out just before the opening, it was still tracking for a respectable 40 million+.
It’s massively under-performing initial expectations. Had it been good, there was a big audience for it, but word of mouth killed it’s chances within a day of release.
Kaiser, I’m with you on all your comments on the dresses.
I like Mindy’s the least. It’s a shame – there’s things that could be done to that dress to make it better. But whatever, she looks happy enough, and I’m impressed with how much she’s doing post-baby. I don’t know how people do it. I haven’t had a child yet, but I’m dealing with chronic illness (and a cold) and I just had to give myself a pep-talk to get in the shower last night.
This could be the cold meds talking but I kind of like the puffy sleeves on Reese’s dress. I usually can’t stand them, but I think it helps that the dress isn’t super over the top competing with the sleeves.
I think Ava DuVernay probably looks the best, here. It’s a simple dress, but she is rocking it. I’m a sucker for blue, though.
I think without the sleeves I would like Mindy’s dress a lot better. Oprah and Ava look great. Reese looks very nice but I feel like she is in a cocktail dress and everyone else is in a more formal look.
I am interested to see the movie but will wait for it to come out streaming, since I don’t think my 5 year old is ready for it and we never get to the movies by ourselves anymore. So I agree with a PP that this movie will make a lot of money in other revenue, not just through box office. Also, 33 million is pretty good for a fantasy movie like this, especially up against Black Panther. So I don’t think anyone is disappointed.
I saw the movie and loved it. From a critical standpoint, it didn’t stand up to the book, but how often do movies compare well to the book? The special effects could have been better, that’s true, but for a kids movie it certainly sucked my kids up into it and they sat slack jawed and quiet through the whole thing – that’s a win.
I think Mindy’s look is a nod to her character. As is Reese’s puffy sleeves. I hate both looks.
Between whatever it is that she did to her face and this terrible dress, Mindy isn’t looking good here.
I thought Mindy’s dress looked okay in the group photo, but in the solo pic, yah, it doesn’t work.
Saw it yesterday, and thought visually it was gorgeous, but the performances were all over the map. I hadn’t read the source material, so had nothing to compare it to in my head watching it. And totally agree with the inordinate number of closeups-after awhile it got distracting. There have been a goodly number of dud-ish adaptations of beloved children’s books. And also agree the test will be if Ava D is tapped to helm another 100M budget film. Last movie comment-if they ever cast “Young James McEvoy”- the young man actor/like interest is his clone!
The fashion here- I liked the bold purple lip color on Mindy in the movie, so would like to see that on her more(tho maybe too intense for real life?). Liked her dress. Loved Oprah’s and Ava’s looks. Reese looks great. I really liked the detailing around the hem of the dress.
The women’s press tour has been hysterical. Oprah and her tub on James Corden was priceless.
Ava’s, Reese’s, and Storm’s dresses are beautiful. Lovely colors, pretty silhouettes.
I can’t get over Mindy Kaling’s lips: ugh. She’s so lovely, smart and accomplished-why must she succumb to that??
Are we sure she’s messing with them? Your face changes during/after pregnancy.
Yeah-they’ve been messed with for a few years now. It is so distracting to me – I used to love her show but once she started getting her lips done I found it took me half an episode to adjust. It’s stuff like this that makes me feel like Id rather stick with my imperfect features then mess with them and look different. ..even if I might think its an improvement, as Im sure Mindy does. It makes me sad – she looked much better before.
No. Your lips do not get swollen 2 years before pregnancy and stay swollen (and bigger) after your pregnancy.
She’s been getting injections for a couple years. I noticed it right away on her show, but if I’m being honest I think it looked pretty good initially. She’s gone too far now, though.
I also don’t understand why she never smiles with her teeth..
I went to see the movie this weekend with my best friend and we enjoyed it! Haven’t read the source material but no movie matches the book completely. It’s a movie for tween girls, there were lots in the theater with us and they loved it. I loved that it showed another very intelligent young lady using her math and science skills and it’s cool to be smart. I also read that majority of male critics did not like it and the majority of female and minority critics liked it. Take it how you will!
I love Temperly but on Mindy’s dress it’s the sleeves that are off-putting. If you took off the sleeves it would look great.
Ava’s dress is gorgeous. Her style is really great, I often love what she is wearing.
I saw the movie with a group of friends, and we all enjoyed it – it wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was entertaining enough, had some beautiful visuals, and was positive in its messaging. I think kids would like it, and it’s great for young girls (and boys) to see a hero like Meg on screen.
Everyone looks beautiful, especially Storm and Ava ( I have a crush on her).
I would wear Oprah’s outfit looks elegant yet comfortable.
Watching the movie this weekend!
Ava, Ava, Storm all look lovely.
That’s all I’ve got to say. Because my Mom taught me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything. 😏
Storm is poised to be a beautiful woman.
Gawd, I hate puffy sleeves – without them, Reese’s dress would be great. I like Mindy’s dress but – is it just me or does it seem a tad big or ill-fitted for her? Oprah’s outfit I don’t get at all, it looks like a shirt my mom would wear coupled with a skirt I’d wear, so maybe that’s what makes it weird for me. The rest all look fine to me. Storm looks adorable!