In Time
Image From IMDB
In Time (2011)
Sometimes you can’t help but feel an idea was wasted. In Time isn’t a bad film by any stretch, but it could have been so much more as well. I’ll start with the positives as always, and then delve a little into how I think the concept could have been used better. But, I will say from the off set that it’s a decent enough movie and worth a watch.
In Time is set in a future where currency and life have been replaced by time. You work to earn more time to live, and everything from food and rent, to cars, watches, and suits, cost you time instead of money. Want a cab across town, that will cost you and hour of your life. Want a night in a fancy hotel, that’s three months. etc. But, when your time runs out, you’re instantly dead.
Within this world is Will (Justin Timberlake), who lives day by day hoping to earn enough time for the next. When he strikes it rich thanks to an out of towner giving up a century of his life Will sets about to change things with the aid of a spoilt rich kid Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) who’s longs for some excitement in her sheltered existence. Together, they plan to bring down the system, and let everyone live a lot longer.
I really like the central concept of In Time, with time not only being a currency, but a life source. When your time is up, you literally drop dead and die. Even missing a day off work is a risk if you have less than twenty four hours left (I'd be looking at the time on my wrist none stop if I lived in this world) It’s a fascinating idea, and one' I'd loved to see examined more.
My main problem with the film however, is that the world building kind of stops at the concept. To much of the movie is Will and Sylvia almost running out of time, rushing somewhere to get more, getting some, and then repeating that action. I swear they almost run out of time like fifteen times in the movie. The film is too focused on the false suspense of them running out of time, to exam the actual core concept and world it would create. I want to know more about this world, not just see two people occupy it.
Other than the idea of Time being a currency and life force, there’s little other world building. A few fancy weapons and some slicker cars, but that’s it. And the time currency is annoyingly hackable to the point of fascial. Everyone can steal it so easily from another person. It has the worse safeguarding I've ever seen.
If that’s meant to be part of the concept, that it’s so easily corruptible and keeps everyone on their toes, then I'd liked to have seen that mentioned. They briefly mention the idea of not having too much time because it makes you a target, but then it’s never brought up again, And the main thug who’s stealing time never seems to then have what he’s taken. Again, I'd like to know why.
It really is a great concept, but there’s no story to go with it. A little cat and mouse chase with some action tossed in, rather than something more substantial. I expected more from the director of Gattaca, hoping for something more akin to Children of Men, but the idea simply wasn’t explored. As mentioned, it’s a serviceable throwaway sci-fi, but it could have been so much more.
