In Time Movie Review

In Time (2011)

Rent In Time on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Andrew Niccol
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Johnny Galecki, Matt Bomer
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
In a future where people stop aging at twenty-five but only get one more year of life, you can either buy time, work for it, or steal more.

Verdict
This is such a neat idea that deserves to be developed better. The further this goes, the more the plot disappointed me as it succumbed to tropes and silliness. It's not that it's bad; the movie had so much potential that it squanders. This initially examines the divide between rich and poor and how money being time makes people desperate. You literally watch your life pass before you eyes. It's another way for the rich to control the world. The system is designed to exploit the poor, but not long into the movie this resigns itself to the action genre with frequent quips about time. The protagonists rob banks to redistribute time as if those in power can't counteract that easily. It could have been so much more, and that's disappointing.
It depends.

Review
This is such a neat idea, exploring the class divide through currency. An opening narration tells us time is literally money. The poor move quickly because they see their life counting down. The rich have no worries or hurries. The rich live forever, the rest hope to save enough time to live another day. When you hit twenty-five you stop aging, but you only get one more year unless you earn more. It is strange that everyone in the movie looks some version of twenty-five.

Will (Justin Timberlake) risks what little life he has for someone spending time way too freely in a bar. This guy, Henry (Matt Bomer), is so rich he has a century of time. Will's concerned someone will kill the guy to steal it. Will protects him, and one safe Henry reveals he is one-hundred and five. Will is only twenty-eight. Henry offers time for the assistance, and WIll refuses. Why? It seems like a lot of contrivances to start the plot. Henry reveals that prices are artificially inflated so the poor die and the rich can retain their spot in the hierarchy. There's enough for everyone if the rich would share. Henry no longer wants to live. He's seen enough. He transfer his time to Will, and we know that will cause issues if people find out as that's why Will worried for Henry.

Justin Timberlake plays Will Salas

Will has all this time, but his mom dies in his arms, out of time. Bus fare prices went up and she didn't have enough. He has some vague notion of revenge, but the specifics are unclear. He doesn't know what he plans, maybe he just wants to see how the rich live in Greenwich if only for a moment.

Timekeepers, this world's police, see a poor man near a dead rich man and assume he killed him. Will gets used to the fact that he doesn't have to constantly check his arm to see how close he is to death. He's enjoying life, perhaps for the first time. Will finds himself in a casino, and it's such a contrivance that he gambles and is within two seconds of death only to win big, gaining over one thousand years.

Will gains entry to the elite rather quickly, but the rich would never imagine someone poor could infiltrate their ranks. In a matter of days, he's richer than he's ever imagined, but he doesn't have a home. He can't go back to Dayton, not with that much time on his arm. The Timekeepers realize he's in Greenwich because he's moving too quickly, like a poor person. The Timekeepers only investigate the rich, it's not all that different from reality. The rich get privilege. This explores the class divide, and it's not very subtle.

Will falls for Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), and he frantically kidnaps her when the Timekeepers track him down. That's where this becomes more of an action move that loses the original concept. They seem to make it to Dayton way too easily. To get to Greenwich Will spent years of time and had to go through checkpoints. Did he find a back road to Dayton? Otherwise he should have been stopped at a checkpoint. Sylvia's father is incredibly wealthy, and she gets to see what it's like to live with only minutes of time on the run with Will. He demands a ransom from her father. He doesn't balk at the amount but at giving it to the poor. The system is designed by the rich to keep the poor in line.

Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake play Sylvia Weis, Will Salas

This shoe horns a story about Will's father into the plot. Timekeeper Raymond (Cillian Murphy) knew Will's dad. He was always trying to give people time and he was killed. That's a revelation to Will who thought he died. The movie doesn't do much with that, at all. There's a hoodlum in the movie that wants to kill Will for no real reason other than plot contrivance. The movie posits it as a villain that just steals time. The hoodlum just so happens to challenge Will to an arm wrestling match where Will already stated he has an advantage he learned from his dad. I'm convinced this scene is the only reason the hoodlum character exists. Will wins by letting his time almost approach zero. Somehow he beats the guy while shooting three guys simultaneously. I don't believe for a second the hoodlum wouldn't fight for all his worth. This is life and death!

Cillian Murphy plays Timekeeper Raymond Leon

What starts this movie is Henry giving Will time. You can transfer time without consent, which seems like a huge problem. That creates several credible issues the movie sidesteps. It makes murder way too easy. As desperate as people are, death would be rampant. Grab someone's arm and you can kill them. They don't refrain just because of Timekeepers. Raymond has this dogged pursuit of Will to keep the balance, but why is he beholden to the rich? He states he's been doing this a long time, and it got him out of Dayton but there had to be much more to that story, at least their should be.

Why wouldn't people rush banks with nothing to lose? Will and Sylvia go on a bank robbing spree, proving just how easy it is. It undermines the movie. There's no way a bank would be in Dayton. Either people would have already been doing this or the banks should be built like military bases. It sidesteps the complexity of what this world should be.

I wonder if this should have been a mystery. The beginning could present the question, planting this desire for the truth in Will related to his father. He uses his time to figure out the mystery, to unravel what the rich are doing. Maybe he doesn't have enough time to do that, but he at least starts the puzzle for someone else that will have to continue it. There's hopelessness in that, but it feels on point for what this is exploring. That's the way the system is designed, to ensure the poor don't have enough time to figure out the system, instead making them too focused on surviving one more day. This movie should be more depressing. Instead it concludes with Will and Sylvia robbing banks and trying to balance the scales of justice. Those in power just raise prices, negating Will and Sylvia's Robin Hood gambit. They just keep stealing time. These tactics on both sides would only escalate causing more strife. This doesn't provide a resolution.

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