|
In Time
| Released |
1 November 2011 |
| Director |
Andrew Niccol |
Starring
|
Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer, Johnny Galecki, Matt Bomer |
| Writer(s) |
Andrew Niccol |
Producer(s)
|
Andrew Niccol, Eric Newman, Marc Abraham |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
109 minutes |
| Genre |
Crime, sci-fi, thriller |
| Rating |
12A |
|
|
Time Bandits.
Anyone up for a good old-fashioned ‘High Concept’ movie? Okay, try this on for size! In the future every person is genetically engineered to stop aging at the age of twenty-five. From the moment they reach that age a countdown watch starts on their arm that gives them a year to live. The poor can add to that time however by working while the very rich can effectively be immortal. But they all continue to look like they’re twenty-five.
Will (Justin Timberlake) is a working stiff trying to look after himself and his mother (Olivia Wilde) in a rough area. However a rich stranger Hamilton (Matt Bomer) comes into the local bar with one hundred years on his arm. He’s immediately targeted by the ‘minutemen’, a gang led by Fortis (Alex Pettyfer). Will helps the stranger escape and he tells him about how the system works, how many poor people must die so that a few rich people can be immortal. Hamilton is tired of living and he gives Will his hundred years before he lets himself die.
Will tries to share his new time with his friend (Johnny Galecki) but the Timekeepers, a type of police force dedicated to protecting the system, are after him led by Cillian Murphy. However his mother dies before Will can share his time with her so Will decides to leave the ghetto and go to the wealthier areas hoping to wreck the system. He meets a wealthy time baron Phillipe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser) and his daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). He’s invited to a party at their house but the Timekeepers catch up with him there. So he abducts Sylvia and the two of them go on the run.
The film is guilty of kleptomania in that it steals from everywhere. There’s a bit of Bonnie and Clyde, a touch of Robin Hood and stylistically it’s heavily indebted to Inception, The Matrix and Niccol’s earlier film Gattaca. Hell, even Seyfried’s hairdo is borrowed from Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. As derivative as it is though, it is quite enjoyable entertainment.
The jury is still out on whether Timberlake has the acting chops to make it as a serious leading man, but he’s decent enough here. Seyfried isn’t anything special either but at least her turn is a bit different from the wide-eyed innocent she plays most of the time. There’s good support from English actor Alex Pettyfer and Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser. Our own Cillian Murphy does a respectable job too, with a very good American accent, although it must be said he’s the only one there who looks much older than twenty-five.
Writer-director Niccol does a good job with an intriguing concept and he keeps the action moving quick enough so as not to make the glaring holes in the plot too obvious.
It’s not a classic but it’s a passable enough sci-fi.
-
Jim O’Connor |
