Mark Schierbecker
Staff Writer
In Time stars Justin Timberlake (Friends with Benefits) and Amanda Seyfried (Dear John). It was directed by Andrew Niccol (Lord of War), distributed by 20th Century Fox and is rated PG-13 running at 115-minutes.
In Time proposes a dystopian future in which the aging gene is turned off at the age of 25. As a means of population control, humans are only given an additional year to live —which is indicated by a digital phosphorescent clock imprinted in their arms— and must earn additional time from hard labor.
In this dystopia, time is money. The rich can afford to buy enough time to live indefinitely while the poor become wage slaves to the rich. The rich keep the status quo by keeping inflation high and engaging in predatory lending.
Will Salas (Timberlake) is a 28-year-old factory worker living with his mother in the the ghettos of Dayton. He survives on a day-to-day basis by working long hours at the local time piece manufacturing plant.
Will meets rich, 105-year-old Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer), who has grown disheartened of the corrupt socioeconomic system. Hamilton is confronted by mobster Fortis (Alex Pettyfer), whose vice is stealing other people’s time. Will pulls Hamilton from the clutches of Fortis and provides shelter for him. Hamilton reveals there is enough time for everyone, but it is being hoarded by the bourgeoisie so they may live indefinitely.
Hamilton secretly transfers his remaining time to Will and commits suicide. Hamilton’s death is investigated by the Timekeepers, the world’s law enforcement, who attempt to apprehend Will. Will retaliates with Robin Hood-style charity that explodes into all out class warfare.
The interesting concept should have made for a good movie but was easily overridden with clichés like time puns (“Got a minute?”) and bad plot development. Disappointingly the future doesn’t look all that convincing. For instance, Dayton looks more like a squalid Los Angeles, where the movie was filmed.
Niccol gets credit for bringing together a great cast and setting up intriguing premise but gets a failing grade for keeping an audience through this 115-minute movie.
