In Time Review

If you have the time to see In Time, you should see In Time.  If you don't have the time to see In Time, then you won't be missing your time.  The number of times I said "time" right there is a representative exaggeration of the amount of times the characters say "time" in In Time.  Wow..now I can't stop.

Anyway, In Time exists in a distant future (I think?) where currency is time, not money.  Everyone has a green, glowing clock on their left arm letting them and the world know how much time they have left to live.  Everyone ages till they turn 25, then the clock starts.  Everyone is born with a year to live, while most people in the ghetto live day-to-day.  That's probably the most effective part of this world and the film itself.  The idea of waking up, knowing that you only have hours or minutes to live is quite unsettling.  You could say that its a cop-out, but In Time uses this premise quite frequently to boost tension within a scene.  Things get all the more serious when you see that there's only seconds left on the clock.  In this future, you can give time and take time by grabbing another person's right forearm.  Here's my beef with that - there are many instances in the film of someone taking time from another..and the second party does nothing to stop it.  You can just walk up to someone sleeping, put your arm underneath theirs and take their time, all the way to death.  Seems like society would break down pretty quickly..don't get me wrong, there is plenty of crime and criminals running around heisting time from people, but its just seems too easy to take someone's time.  We don't go around giving our money to people on a daily basis.  There is such an interesting world here, but the logic unfortunately doesn't fully hold up under scrutiny, and isn't really explored.

I thought the performances were alright.  I quite liked Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.  And who doesn't like Cillian Murphy??  The script itself is what's lacking, though.  A few too many "time" jokes were peppered throughout the early dialogue: "Hey, play some poker with us"  "No thanks, I don't have the TIME to play poker any more."  It gets quite annoying after a while..as does Alex Pettyfer.  I haven't shared my opinions on this guy yet, but I cannot stand him in anything he's done.  He's an annoying asshole in this film and doesn't change my unfavorable opinion of the guy.

Despite all the negatives I've brought up I enjoyed In Time.  The concept and world are pretty interesting; a lot of tech is pseudo-retro.  Cars look straight out of the early 90s, but hum with future-tech.  There are "time zones" to keep the rich separated from the poor.  With all of this there is quite a heavy underlying tone and message; the government helps to keep the rich, rich and the poor, poor.  Those living in the ghetto live day-to-day, with death in the streets, while the rich live lavishly with hundreds, if not thousands of years on their clocks.  The message is pretty heavy-handed but didn't necessarily detract from my enjoyment.  I think most of us have grown accustomed to a bit of political preaching in modern films.  Overall, I was able to overlook most of the glaring flaws and plot holes (how did JT and Amanda get back to the ghetto after he kidnapped her?) and had fun with this movie.

In Time is kinda cool.