"For a few to be immortal, many must die."
Time is money in this high concept sci-fi action flick starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. In Time (formerly under the working titles of Now and I'm.mortal) is set in an alternate world where time is the new currency and genetic engineering has allowed mankind to cease aging at 25. Everyone is born with a year on their clock and once you reach of age, time begins ticking away. A glowing digital readout on your forearm tells you how much you have left. Instead of 99-cent stores, they have 99-seconds stores and a cup of coffee can cost four minutes. The poor are forced to literally live day by day. Now and then, some poor soul will drop dead in the street. Their body lays there because nobody has the time to pick him up. Just when you think you're about to come ahead, the cost of living rises.
And forget about upward mobility. The city is divided into sections known as Time Zones and it can cost someone years to travel from the ghetto of Dayton to the affluent part of the city known as New Greenwich.
Will Salas (Timberlake) understands how broken the system is. There's not much he can do about it, until a high roller named Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) arrives in Dayton with over a hundred years on his clock. Will saves him from a group of time thieves led by Fortis (Alex Pettyfer). Already over a century old, Henry gives Will his remaining time before running his clock out. When Will's mother, Rachel (Olivia Wilde), dies in his arms because she couldn't afford a bus ride, he vows revenge against the wealthy in New Greenwich.
Before he can enjoy the lap of luxury, Will is falsely accused of murdering Henry by the Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy), a police officer known in this world as a Timekeeper. Will escapes from custody and kidnaps Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a powerful banker named Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). Weis callously extols the virtues of temporal Darwinism, only the strong must survive for mankind to prosper. Faster than you can say Patty Hearst, the rebellious Sylvia joins forces with Will to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Their disruption of the status quo makes them wanted fugitives.
In Time was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, no stranger to dystopian futures having also made Gattaca, about a society where the population has been engineered to be perfect. Niccol also directed the underrated Lord of War and wrote the screenplay for The Truman Show. As such, "In Time" has some clever ideas. The poor are always in a rush because they haven't the time to dawdle while the rich can afford to live at a leisurely pace. The trade off is that they can still die by accident so they surround themselves with bodyguards and be overly cautious. Thus, the elite don't truly enjoy the fruits of immortality. When Weis lines up his wife, daughter, and mother-in-law, they could just as well be triplets.
Niccol wisely avoids delving into the origins and science of his world. Such exposition isn't necessary and any deep thoughts into the story would yield a great deal of plot holes. You'll also need to prepare yourself for inane dialogue rife with silly time-related puns.
The concept of an eternally youthful society allows the movie to be completely populated only by the young and the beautiful. Justin Timberlake has taken bold roles in films like Alpha Dog and Southland Tales to distance himself from his boy band image. His turn as Facebook co-founder Sean Parker in The Social Network was exceptional. Yet, he doesn't quite have the chops to play a believable action hero. With her anime eyes and china doll looks, Amanda Seyfried, is perfectly cast as the fragile socialite.
In Time doesn't have the cerebral tone of Niccol's previous films. It is a straight-up B-movie with a few shootouts and car chases thrown in when it's not too busy pontificating about social inequality. The message is hammered home so frequently that In Time could easily be considered socialist propaganda or at the very least, a rallying cry for the Occupy Movement. If you've got time to spare, it might prove to be a mildly diverting experience.
Rating: ** (*****)
1 comment:
The potential for this flick was outstanding given that the concept is really original, but there are few plot holes in the story and some poor acting that make this movie a bit cheesy.
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