At a certain age, most girls adore their father and what could be better than a girl saving her father? In “A Wrinkle in Time,” that girl  is a light-skinned African-American with a head full of tight curls and black glasses. She’s smart, but depressed because her brilliant father has been missing for four long years and no one believes he’s coming back.

This being a Disney children’s film, we know he will, but we don’t know exactly how. It has something to do with three women, led gloriously by Oprah Winfrey. The movie is based on the 1962 book by the same name, written by  Madeleine L’Engle as part of a series that eventually follows this 13-year-old girl, Meg Murry (14-year-old Storm Reid), and her friend Calvin O’Keefe (Levi Miller).

The movie begins with us soaring through the clouds until we find a golden, glowing orb. Soon enough we find ourselves with a young girl, Meg, and her father, Dr. Alex Murry (Chris Pine), searching for frequencies.  Meg’s father and mother, Dr. Kate Murry (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) believe that in finding the correct frequency, in finding right moments, they can show how the galaxy is more connected by invisible links and one can travel through a wrinkle in time in an instant, rather than days or months or years. Of course, the rest of the scientific community is aghast if not laughing at the pure insanity of their theories.

Dr. Kate wanted slowly suggest their theory, but Dr. Alex is the impulsive one and it is Dr. Alex who mysteriously disappears. Four years later, Meg has fallen from a top student to a sullen, despondent and sometimes angry girl who ends up at the principal’s office. The mean girls can smell the blood of her despair and circle around her, taking sharp bites from her confidence. When they make fun of her brilliant brother, Charles Wallace, she snaps back with a quick basketball pass to the main mean girl’s head. Kids do not try this at home. Meg has caught the eye of a big man on campus, the cute Calvin O’Keefe (Miller). Everyone thinks he’s cool, but he has a secret–one that’s sad and is revealed later one.

Charles Wallace has already made the acquaintance of the three gorgeous gals who will guide them. First Charles Wallace brings Mrs. Whatsit in one a dark, cold evening. Then, in the daytime, he goes into a derelict house where Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) is quilting. Mrs. Who speaks in quotes from the past. Finally, all three misses appear, with Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey) larger than the rest. The gals come because Dr. Alex is sending emotional distress signals from across the galaxy. Yet the three misses, aren’t sure that Meg is ready–she lacks confidence and love, especially love for herself.

Using “tessering” the three misses take Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin into another dimension where they land in a beautiful new world. Meg seems to suffer from extreme “jetlag” and one have to wonder why. The theory behind the travel is based on the tesseract which according to Merriam-Webster is “the four-dimensional analogue of a cube.” The hypersurface of the tesseract consists of eight cubical cells. We’re talking unseeable other dimensions and a lot of science fiction leaps of faith.

In the end, after many fabulous costume and makeup changes by the three misses, Meg and Calvin will find faith in themselves and Meg will be able to save both her father and her younger brother.

I was mesmerized by the glitter and glow on the lips and eyelids of the three misses and have decided against green lipstick (Sorry Reese) and for purple lipstick (Mindy rocks it) and am out on the fence about silver glitter lipstick (Oprah makes it work, but can it?).

For those curly-haired girls who grew up thinking that men don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses, this movie is for you. For girls who lack confidence and love for themselves, this movie is for you. For boys who need to get in touch with their sensitive side, this is for you. This is a lovely movie about finding love for oneself and being brave by loving. The warriors here are those who spread light and love against the darkness of hate and that’s a message worth hearing.