Susan Granger’s review of “In Time” (20th Century-Fox)
Serendipitously coinciding with nationwide Occupy Wall Street demonstrations against income inequality, this thriller ventures into the bleak future, where money buys time.
In this sci-fi world, when people reach 25, that’s as far aging goes, and they have one more year to live before they die. A greenish, glowing digital clock on their forearm indicates how much longer they have. But extra time can be bought, sold, exchanged, traded or stolen by the clasp of hands. Wages are paid in minutes and hours. Rent might cost several days, a phone call one minute, coffee four minutes and an hour gets 10 minutes with a prostitute.
For people like Will Sala (Justin Timberlake) and his mother, Rachel (Olivia Wilde), living in the working-class Dayton ghetto, it’s a constant challenge to keep their arm clock from hitting zero – like when Rachel fatally underestimates bus fare. But for the very rich, like calculating industrialist Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser), who live in New Greenwich district, banking on immortality is expected. So when Will encounters a suicidal stranger (Matt Bomer) and is given an unexpected ‘gift of time,’ he decides to kidnap Weis’ daughter, Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), who falls in love with him and wants to give him all the time he needs so they can change the system. But they’re doggedly pursued by an unstoppable Timekeeper (Cillian Murphy).
Best known for “Gattaca” (1997), writer/director Andrew Niccol creates yet another dystopian allegory, only – this time – he fares less well. Perhaps it’s because he never develops the provocative premise any further – like why would kidnapping Sylvia change society’s global time-redistribution structure? Or perhaps it’s because in “Gattaca” he teamed Uma Thurman with Ethan Hawke, igniting not only an on-screen but also a real-life romance. But – here – he pairs Amanda Seyfried with Justin Timberlake and both go through the motions with an obvious lack of passion. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast of twentysomethings is forgettable.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “In Time” is a slickly stylized 6, adroitly rigging the economic currency.
