In Time

This week, Evan and I watched In Time. The previews this week weren’t much (Immortals, The Grey, Contraband, The Darkest Hour), but the interesting thing was that I can’t remember a single studio logo before the movie started. That may be the first time I’ve never seen that.

The concept of In Time is fairly simple. People have been genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. Once they hit that magic age, a clock on their wrist starts counting down from one year. Once it hits zero, they die. I think we should implement it in real life, only instead of counting down peoples lives, it would count down peoples 15 minutes of fame. That was I’d learn how much longer I’d have to put up with the Kardashians (63 years? Son of a bitch!) In the movie, people pay for things using their time, so rich people can add far more to their year and live for millennia, while poor people literally live day-to-day (ouch! I’ve been hit over the head with an allegory).

The movie opens with a Will Silas (Justin Timberlake) voice-over explaining these things to us. Normally I don’t like voice-overs, because they don’t explain much, tend to get in the way, and hurt our willing suspension of disbelief. But this one I liked for a couple reasons. JT doesn’t have the low, bass-y voice of other action stars, but that doesn’t make it sound whiny, just vulnerable. And that raises the stakes and makes us care about him, all before seeing him and within 30 seconds of the movie opening. So a good choice on that.

Anyway, after the voice over, we get a nice morning scene where Will explains to his mom (Olivia Wilde) he worked overtime to buy some champagne, to celebrate her 50 birthday, which is today. She has to work extra to pay off a loan, but when she gets home the next night, they’ll celebrate.

Will goes to work, giving a few minutes to the neighbourhood street orphan, and going the last few minutes with his friend (Johnny Galecki! He’s … fat, and dishevelled, and … dramatic). Anyway, the day ends, but Will doesn’t get paid as much as usual since the quotas went up. He goes to a bar, where there’s a guy with over a century on his wrist (Matt Bomer), buying drinks for everyone.

The bar clears out when the local gang shows up (it’s the slums, but apparently there’s only one gang) called ‘the minutemen.’ They try to pick a fight with the centurian, but he’s smuggled out of the bar by Will, and they flee to an abandoned warehouse. The Centurian introduces himself as Henry Hamilton, and has a frank discussion about the dirty details of society. It seems that for some people to live forever, many must die. So the cost of living increases, and the poorer die off, and the rich get richer (and older).

They stay in the warehouse for the night, and Henry gives a sleeping Will all of his time, leaving only five minutes for himself. Just after dawn, he goes to a bridge to time out. Will runs after him, but arrives seconds too late (ironic, considering the 116 years on his wrist).

Will goes back to his town, and gives his friend a decade of time. Then he plans on celebrating with his mother, but there’s a hitch. His mom has just paid off a loan, but the cost-of-living increases have made it impossible to take the bus, and the walk takes more time that she has.

When she doesn’t come off the bus at the stop, Will gets suspicious and runs to where she was working, while she runs in the other direction. Time does not favour them, and we get a scene of Justin Timberlake grief that can only be described as what TVTropes calls Narm. And I wholeheartedly agree. People in the theatre laughed.

Anyway, Will’s determined to make the rich people pay for all their stolen time, so he sets out to the rich part of town. There, he meets one of the richest people on earth, as well as his daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). She knows there’s something wrong with society (even though she’s not the one getting the shaft), but doesn’t know how to do anything about it. Together, Will and Sylvia kick off the plot of how to bring normalcy back to society, so that everyone has the time, and no on can hoard it. They’re time communists!

I liked the concept of this movie. I even liked most of the plot (despite some plotholes, like where Will learned to drive), and most of the actors (but when everyone’s 25, they’re all attractive, so that may have affected me). The biggest problem I had was with the director.

He just seemed to fall victim to too many tropes. He called back a lot of things (notice that orphan girl at the beginning? She’ll play a small part later one). Hey look, it’s the grizzled detective (well, he would be grizzled if he didn’t stop aging at 25) played by Cillian Murphy. As the grizzled detective, he’s allowed to investigate by intuition, give orders without explanation, and he’s always right. He doesn’t want to bring Will in, but it’s his duty. I could find out he’s 3 days from retirement and not be at all surprised.

Yeah, and there’s a missing father, too. Dead for being a good guy and trying to give away time. Oh, hey, look. His son is trying to do the same thing. Will the son succeed where the father failed? It’s a movie, what do you think?

I’d really like to give this movie a Blu-Ray rating for the concept and beautiful people, but I can’t. Too many tropes were used, and the action itself is rather bland (and there’s not a lot of it to begin with). The music is functional, but only during the credits did I hear something I liked. So despite its original concept, the movie uses too many conventions to be anything but a DVD movie for me.

Also, like zombie movies, we're plunked down amid the problem once it’s been going for quite a while. But getting that system implemented would’ve sparked riots. I don’t see how they could have started it. So the director assumes that it already been going for a while, and the movie starts from that. Just like a zombie movie. Can you imagine a film that takes place right at the beginning of the outbreak? One or two zombies, shuffling slowly towards their intended victim. A shotgun blast to the face, movie over. There’s a reason zombie flicks start with the horde in place.