Imagine a world where your body stops aging at 25, and your time on earth is counting down. Oh, and one more thing—the time you have left is what you will be using to pay for necessities and luxuries from food to rent.
Film writer-director Andrew Niccol brings a stimulating sci-fi concept to full life with In Time, which boasts an excellent cast and brilliant action and effects, and is only occasionally bogged down with an awkward writing or acting moment.
Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) undertakes to restore justice and stop the corruption in this futuristic society embedded with a Darwinistic motif that only the fittest will survive.
The rich keep on living like immortals while the poor struggle to survive as the cost of living rises daily. People are born with a stamped clock on one arm. The clocks start counting down as soon as people hit their 25th birthday. Everyone can earn, gamble, loan, pay, and steal time. It has become the currency.
After being given over a century’s worth of time overnight, Will crosses multiple “time-zones” (what the neighborhoods are referred to) to the wealthiest one, New Greenwich, and seeks to gain more time.
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In hopes of finding a hole in the system, he meets Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), who is the wealthiest man alive.
Will and Sylvia become fugitives, fleeing after they break a vault of stored time and thus begin a whirlwind adventure to bring more time to the masses.
In Time projects a “Bonnie and Clyde meets Robin Hood” vibe that is also reminiscent of 1997’s “Gattaca.” Action-packed with car chases, gun fights, climatic races on foot against ticking clocks, and a few plot twists between Will, cop-like figures known as “Timekeepers,” and even mafia-type characters called “Minutemen”—there is enough to keep your adrenaline pumping.
Timberlake is a man of many talents and keeps that reputation alive, creating room for a potential career in action films. He powered through some of the awkward dialogues with Seyfried, but their chemistry translated through.
Seyfried falls to the background with a lackluster portrayal of a socialite. She feels more like an accessory, mostly with the script to blame.
Meanwhile, Cillian Murphy never fails to impress as Timekeeper Raymond Leon. His delivery as a heartless law enforcer showing no signs of mercy to citizens of the ghetto—despite its being his place of origin—is superb and strengthens the film’s credibility.
The other notable performance is by Vincent Kartheiser, truly believable as an old aristocratic man in a 25-year-old’s body. The film is also adorned with familiar faces from both film and television such as Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, and Johnny Galecki.
The best of this genre is able to provide a thrilling ride and solid conflict, provoke thought with the subtle and not-so-subtle references to our own society’s distribution of power, and leave you questioning if you are living your own life to the fullest. In Time easily checks all the boxes.
[etRating value=“ 3.5”]
