In Time (2011) - a Potentially Awesome Concept Not Fully Explored.

Type: Sci-fi Thriller

Review

Being a die hard Thriller Movies fan, I had a hard time accepting the fact that Justin Timberlake can be part of one, yeah we've all seen the guy on the big screen before, but it was mostly in Romance or Comedy movies. To my surprise, his performance in this Sci-fi Thriller was really good. So easy on our friend here, apparently he is not what caused this film to be a bit disappointing!

So what's so Awesome about In Time?

Let's start with the good part first. It takes place in a dystopian future world where time is literally money, people were genetically altered to live normally till the age of 25, then, they stop aging, but this mutation triggers a clock that is implanted on their forearms and it starts counting down from 1 year. 

So you only have one year left to live unless you can buy your way out of it. And since Time has become the only currency worldwide, the rich can live forever and the poor have to struggle with the constantly rising prices in order to stay alive.

"You have to work, borrow, beg or steal to make it to the next day. Trust me, you don't want to see 13  Zeroes!!!"

In this cruel world our hero Will Walas (Justin Timberlake) lives with his 50 years old mother (Olivia Wilde), - "Yeah you heard me right, the hottest 50 years old mom I've ever seen, and it makes sense since people stop aging at 25"- he is falsely accused of murder and  forced to go on the run with Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) the beautiful daughter of the wealthy Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser) after she developed a Stockhom Syndrome for him.

Living minute to minute,chased by cops called Timekeepers led by Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) and Minute Men (gangsters) led by Fortis (Alex Pettyfer) the duo's love becomes a powerful tool in their war to give people their time back and bring down this corrupt, oppressive and unjust system.

As you can see, this thriller is based on a potentially awesome concept, an idea that could have earned it a honorable place with the most memorable Sci-fi Thrillers of the last 10 years, such as: Inception, Looper & Limitless. The film is at its best during the first half hour where it laid the ground and introduced you to its world and rules. But the main problem with In Time is that its writer-director Andrew Niccol didn't take time explore the idea to its fullest. I was expecting more information about the history of the events that led man kind to be like this, but he didn't even bother telling us anything about who put out this system or what is the organisation that pulls the strings of this new world.

On the other hand the movie has a really good visual style and that's one of the things that stand out, but isn't that just normal when you have Roger Deakins as the director of photography? The same guy who worked on: The Village, No country for Old Men and most recently: Skyfall.

The acting was overall good, it was great to see Amanda Seyfried getting out of her cute little girl cocoon that she was trapped in for so long and the same thing goes for Johnny Galecki from The Big Bang Theory, although his role was kinda short and it was weird watching him all serious. Justin Timberlake did a good job, not awesome but not bad. Cillian Murphy who I think was really great in this role, this guy is awesome and you should definitely check him out as the main character of Red Lights.

In Time features a lot of metaphors about the way we live in real life and the value of our time, it's a fun movie to watch, it could have been more awesome if Niccol explored his story in a better way instead of stuffing it with repetitive car chases and gun fights and turninig into a just fine, futuristic Bonny & Clyde.

Thriller Info: [Source: Wikipedia]

Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Produced by: Andrew Niccol, Marc Abraham, Kristel Laiblin, Eric Newman
Written by: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer, Vincent Kartheiser, Johnny Galecki
Music by: Craig Armstrong
Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Edited By: Zach Staenberg
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release date: October 28, 2011
Running time:109 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $40 million
Box office:$173,930,596
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