Ever since I first saw the Instastories from Ava Duvernay as she flew over New Zealand scoping out possible filming locations, I was excited about this film. I never read the book (and still haven’t read the whole thing- yet!) but I know how much thought Ava puts into her films. They have deeper meaning than just a retelling. She has an incredible eye and amazing ability to see a scene before she looks through that viewfinder for the first time – a true visionary. I knew something special would come out of this – maybe not in the form of the movie itself but more in the form of a movement or awareness of something bigger and that is exactly what has happened. Young spectacled, brown, brilliant girls are getting to see themselves on the big screen and women all over are being inspired by words of wisdom. I can’t say which words are Ava’s and which ones come directly from Madeleine L’Engle but these are the ones that resonated.
“Love is always there even if you don’t feel it. It’s always there for you.”
“We can’t take credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.” Reese Witherspoon’s character to Meg.
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Rumi (As quoted by Mindy Kaling’s character)
“We are warriors who serve the light in the universe.” (Oprah’s character – and what Oprah often says to my group of friends).
“It’s okay to fear the answers but you can’t avoid them.”
“The IT deserves our deepest light.”
“You have no idea how incredible you are, do you?”
“I like your hair”.
Oprah always says that if the only prayer you ever say is “Thank you!”, that will be enough and that is the final phrase of the film.
Other things I liked about the movie:
Meg’s school is named after James Baldwin and there is a Maya Angelou bulletin board behind her in an early scene.
I love that Oprah is larger than life – larger than all the other characters and has great wisdom – just like Oprah in real life.
Oprah said her character is a a combo of Maya Angelou and Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz.
Love is the frequency of vibration that allows tesseract, to happen. How perfect! Love is the key to everything. Of course that’s the vibration that allows magic to happen.