A film review by Craig J. Koban November 3, 2011 |
|||||
IN TIME
Will Salas: Justin
Timberlake / Rachel Salas: Olivia Wilde / Sylvia Weis: Amanda
Seyfried / Philippe Weis: Vincent Kartheiser / Leon: Cillian
Murphy / Henry Hamilton: Matt Bomer / Fortis: Alex Pettyfer
/ Borel: Johnny Galecki |
|||||
You
know the old adage time is money?
Well,
as far as the new sci-fi thriller IN TIME goes, it’s literally true. Like
all of the best speculative science fiction, IN TIME is far more
interested in its thoughtful ideas and themes than with CGI-infused
pyrotechnics and mindless action mayhem.
As far as premises go, the film contains a fiendishly original and
endlessly fascinating one that, more or less, carries the film
successfully forward, even when it degenerates into lamentable genre
conventions and clichés. Sometimes,
there’s nothing worse than when a potentially great film with equally
great ideas is held back from greatness when it devolves into perfunctory
gun battles and car chases, which is the source of some of my criticism
against IN TIME. Yet, as far
as its intriguing ideas presented within, the film is compulsively
watchable. In
the film’s reality (whether it be the distant future or an alternate
universe Earth; I believe it to be the latter) humans have been
genetically engineered to stop aging at 25 and time has essentially
replaced normal forms of currency. Yes,
time. Time has become
money. People can
spend time like money to buy things (a cup of coffee costs four minutes, a
bus trip will cost you an hour, whereas a super sleek sports car will set
you back about five months). People
can spend time, borrow time, lend time to others, or, of course, steal it.
Like a mirror into our modern times, society has been designated into
the haves and the have-nots: the uber upper class live in luxurious and
affluent cities and occupy what seems like 99 per cent of the time wealth
whereas the remaining one per cent struggle to have time and live in
ghettoized neighborhoods. Hmmm…sound
familiar. Here’s
where the film gets interesting. Every
human being has what looks like an eight to ten inch DayGlo digital clock
on their forearms that precisely clicks off how many years, months, days,
hours, and seconds that they have left on Earth; when it hits zero the person
instantly dies. Now, as far
as the aging process being halted at 25, if you “come from time” you
have endless supplies of it and can theoretically live forever looking
like you’re 25 (you could be 50 or 100 in actual years, but still look
mid-twenties). In essence, the rich can live forever. As for the poor? After
25 they basically live minute to minute, desperately working to eek out a
living to expand their lives. When
they can’t earn time to buy essentials, they can borrow time at banks
(subject to outrageous interests of 40 per cent) or borrow time from
others by interfacing forearm clocks like USB drives.
If you’re really devious, you can steal it as well from others. The
film tells the story of one of the have-nots, Will Salas (Justin
Timberlake), a 28-year-old factory worker that lives in the ghettos of
Dayton with his 50-year-old mother, Rachel, played by the ravishing Olivia
Wilde, who looks 25 as per the laws of the film, which could give any of
her sons a serious Oedipus complex.
Both of them are relatively happy, even when on any given day one of them could
die if
they do not earn enough time.
One day in particular proves to be fatal for Rachel, as she fails
to have enough time to pay for an overpriced bus fare, and before she can
reach her son for a forearm exchanging recharge she dies, leaving Will
alone. One
night while at a local bar Will comes to the rescue of an extremely
wealthy man (Matt Boomer) that has over a century of time.
Knowing that a man with that much time in a ghetto bar could be
dangerous, Will takes it upon himself to get the man out of there before
some local time-stealing goons have their way with him.
While
in hiding and when the coast is clear for them, the man confesses to Will that he is fed up with the prospects of living forever and how
is life has become meaningless. Without
Will knowing, the man donates almost all of his time to Will in his sleep
and then commits suicide. Realizing
that he now has the capital to do whatever he wants, Will then takes it
upon himself to get some comeuppance against the richest of society. He travels to the most affluent zone where the richest live
and after a very lucrative – but nearly fatal – trip to a casino, Will
meets one of the world’s wealthiest men, Philippe Weis (MAD MEN’s
Vincent Kartheiser, oozing contemptuous snobbery).
Before he can get too close, a time-enforcer cop (Cillian Murphy)
catches up with Will and accuses him of stealing his benefactor’s time.
Will manages to escape, but only by using Weis’ daughter, Sylvia
(an almost unrecognizable Amanda Seyfried) as a human shield and later as a hostage. Initially, Sylvia yearns to be taken back home, but the more
time she spends with Will the more her eyes open up to the capitalist greed
that punctuates her father’s existence.
She decides to become Will’s accomplice as they engage in a
Bonnie and Clyde-ian time stealing spree in hopes of redistributing the
wealth to the underprivileged. IN
TIME has almost pitch-perfectly arrived in theatres at a time when the
Occupy Wall Street Movement has been gaining serious momentum.
The film is maybe almost too spot-on and obvious when it comes to
its contemporary parallels, but like good sci-fi it takes a grandiose idea
and uses it as a mirror to our current socio-cultural foibles, which
ultimately makes the film both perceptive and unsettling at the same time.
Furthermore, I loved the film’s startling sense of simplicity and
elegance when it comes to its retro-futuristic period design.
How often have we been bombarded by ostentatious visual effects
that seem to go out of their way to throw computer fakery up on the
screen to sell its setting? IN
TIME’s aesthetic hybrids décor, architecture, clothing, and cars from
sources as far ranging from the 50’s to the 70’s and this creates a
nifty sense of displacement. The
look of the film is greatly assisted by the virtuoso cinematography of
Roger Deakins, who paints the screen with stark and cool hued colors that
are often punctuated by the greenish glow of the citizens’ time clocks. IN
TIME does have issues, though, like the fact that it’s final act does
not seem as interesting as its set-up.
Particularly disappointing is how the film lets its truly
involving and novel premise lose its footing under the weight of
disposable action and chase sequences.
The film also left me asking far too many questions as well.
What happened to all of the old people before humans were
engineered to die at 25? Did they
live until their normal and natural deaths or were they dealt
with? How
did the monetary system of time start and who started it? Why would
families have babies
in the ghetto when they know what their fates will be?
Are babies automatically born with the genetic predisposition to die at
25? Is the film set in the distant future (judging by its clues
sprinkled throughout) or is it an alternate timeline?
Then there are odd peculiarities about some characters: Will kind of
turns from a weak and meager man that loves his momma to a cocky and
courageous crusader and finally to an avenging vigilante that seems to
have a knowledge of firearms and martial arts…when the script
conveniently allows it. And,
yes, Cillian Murphy is always a treasure when he plays detached and scary
protagonists, but the 35-year-old actor is hardly believable as a
25-year-old. Still, IN TIME proves that you can get considerable mileage out of any wholly innovative premise even when the storyline gets derailed with routine formulas. The film was written and directed by the terribly underrated Andrew Niccol, the New Zealander who penned THE TRUMAN SHOW (which fundamentally predicted - years before it occurred - society’s obsession with reality-TV). His directorial debut was the fantastic GATTACA, another futuristic tale regarding genetic tinkering and class struggle. The follow-through on his sci-fi films is how humanity in the future will be unavoidably influenced – typically for the worse – by rapidly evolving technology. IN TIME contains some rookie missteps by Niccol and certainly is not as well rounded as GATTACA, but it's nonetheless a small-scale triumph of concept. It’s also refreshing to see films like this – and this spring's THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU – take stock in gripping and meditative ideas first and monotonous and dime-a-dozen visual effects eye candy a distant second. |
|||||
|
|||||