In Time    $$ ½

PG-13

109 Minutes

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Galecki

Director: Andrew Niccol

 

            In the near future, the good news is that scientists have identified the aging gene and switched it off. (Yeah, we can all live forever.)

            The bad news is that, in order to avoid over-population, time has become the currency of the world. (Boo, the average life span has dropped.)

            Everyone has a clock imbedded in their arm. It is dormant until you turn twenty-five and at that point you are given one year’s worth of time. A cup of coffee might cost you 2 minutes. A bus ride might cost you an hour. And the amount of time each person has can be exchanged so robbers are now actually stealing the amount of time a person has to live.

            This is a very cool concept.

            Justin Timberlake plays the protagonist, Will Salas, who always seems to be down to his last minutes, has a talent for fighting, and a sense of honor. Everything changes for him when he rescues a rich stranger that gives him a fortune in time.           

            Cillian Murhpy does an excellent job of playing a Time Keeper, which is what passes for a police officer in this setting. And Amanda Seyfried plays the rich, protected socialite that Will Salas eventually encounters.

            The writers really ran with the idea of time as medium of exchange. It felt as if they planned to take every phrase involving time and developed it into the environment of the story. However, I don’t recall them using “daylight savings time”, “turning back the clock”, or even “over time”.  Maybe I just missed them.

            Overall, I enjoyed the movie and would watch it again.

            I rated In Time as a 2 ½. The concept was great, the overall message was good, the acting ranged from reasonable to pretty good. Then we come to plot and the movie falters. I think better direction could have turned this into a great movie.

            There are no special effects that need to be seen on an ultra-large screen to be appreciated. Nothing in the soundtrack needs to be heard with state-of-the-art sound systems. And nothing about the movie really demands that you rush out and see it. I have no qualm recommending the film. I just don’t recommend spending a lot of money doing so.
    

            Randy’s Rating System

$$$$   = Full Price    See this movie right away and pay full price, it’s worth it.

$$$     = Matinee      Catch this as a matinee or other discounted showing.
$$        = Discount     Wait until this movie reaches a discount theater near you.
$          = Rental         Wait until this movie reaches your local video rental outlet.
0          = No Sale       Don’t see this movie at any price.