If there is one indisputable fact A Wrinkle in Time teaches us, it’s that girls really do love their daddies. So much so that they stop functioning in society, and ultimately traverse space, time and dimensions to get them back.

Of course, the daddy has to be a world-renowned scientist (played by Chris Pine in a beard), and the movie has to be cuckoo in the first place for these things to happen.

A Wrinkle in Time, originally a novel by Madeline L’Engle, is a fantasy fable so a lot of the implausibility comes with a caveat. There’s also a message of love and acceptance in the movie.

Director Ava DuVernay (Selma) one of my favourite female directors of the current generation gets carried away by the expensive visual effects spectacle (some of it reminisce of a more colour-filled version of Tim Burton’s unreality) and misses the emotional beats. The children, Meg (Storm Reid) her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and their friend Calvin magically crisscross through world with the help of three astral travellers – Mrs. Which, Mrs. What’sit and Mrs. Who (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling).

These wonderful worlds don’t really hold much attraction – other than cameos by Michael Pena and Zach Galifianakis – but do have life-lessons. Eventually the three children find their father (without hardship), and fight off the villain called IT (voice of David Oyelowo).

Spoiler Alert – everyone returns home and the film ends.

The effortlessness of the entire enterprise and the lack of ‘real’ imagination (though not sincerity) keeps even a spec of redeemable quality away from the movie. Nothing much happens that could be of interest, and for some reason the 2003 telefilm version (also produced by Disney) feels much, much better… which it isn’t.