Sometimes you hate a film and sometimes you love it. But have you seen one of those films when you walked out wondering if it had all been a waste of time?
In Time, written and directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War), offers an intriguing concept. What if your lifetime became currency? Sure, you stop aging at age 25, but you only get one more year to live and you have to use that time to pay for goods and services. You can work to earn more time, but the cost of living continues to rise. Not only would this solve the overpopulation crisis, but it offers potential immortality for those who can afford it.
Unfortunately it's difficult to identify with some of the characters in this film and it devolves into a bit of a Bonnie and Clyde rehash. Will Salas (Justin Timberlake, Friends with Benefits, Bad Teacher, The Social Network) is struggling to make ends meet, while his mom, Rachel (Olivia Wilde, Cowboys & Aliens, TRON: Legacy, TV's House M.D.), is struggling to pay the loan on the house. One day Will meets a millionaire, Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer, TV's Chuck and White Collar), and helps him escape potential doom with a group of thugs in a bar. In return, Henry gives Will more than a century and tells him not to waste it...
Along the way we meet Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy, Inception, The Dark Knight, Sunshine) who's job it is to apprehend Will for having too much time on his hands, Borel (Johnny Galecki, TV's Big Bang Theory) who is Will's best friend and an alcoholic with a new family, Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried, Red Riding Hood, Letters to Juliet, TV's Big Love) who is a spoiled rich girl looking for a way to get more out of life, and Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser, TV's Mad Men and Angel) who is Sylvia's father and a big time banker. Each of these offers a different perspective on the whole "time as currency" idea, from maintaining a world order based on the rich wanting to live forever and the poor paying for it to just trying to live in the moment.
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