This was one of my highly anticipated films of the year given that Andrew Niccol's was responsible for writing and directing it, with his debut feature Gattaca remaining one of my firm favourites amongst the science fiction genre. Here, Niccol's created a whole new scientific world where the gene responsible for aging has been identified, and will be turned off automatically at age 25. However as a trade off, a timer that counts down is introduced as a population control measure, where time in terms of seconds to centuries get earned through an honest living, or obtained through unscrupulous means by way of crime. And one can gift another a slice of one's own life through almost telepathic ways, making it a commodity much like currency, and with any form of financial system equivalent, the rich get richer, while the poor gets stuck in the rut.
New environments and landscapes got created for this futuristic world with the slums being the residence and work area of the have nots, where going from point to point meant doubling up since time spent on non-economic activity is best kept to a minimum, given rocket inflation and the unfortunate need of having to live hand to mouth. Justin Timberlake continues his successful acting gig this year with a rather well placed Will Salas, a poor man gifted a century's worth of time, although wanted for murder and having to rage against the system for what it did to his mom, played by Olivia Wilde. Soon he teams up with Amanda Seyfried's poor little rich girl Sylvia in what would be a classic throwback to Bonnie and Clyde, with the duo involved in robbing from banks, and redistributing wealth in time currency amongst the poorest of folks with interest free loans
Blessed with a great premise that you would see have been covered in a number of short films out there, In Time somehow lacked that clear direction of where it wants to head to. It chases its own tail going around, didn't quite live up to its billing of how precious every moment, of an audience's time, actually is. Ultimately it really looked like an origin piece for something derivative from it, be it a television series which in all likelihood can work given a new universe created with countless possibilities that can use the 20-odd episode television to explore with new characters living in the confines of the environment, or an MMORPG where one can take control of one's online fate through avatars created and going about with similar challenges to stay alive.
You can read my review of In Time at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.
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