Justin Timberlake continues his non-stop acting assault. Last year, he took on the part of real-life Tech Wiz, Sean Parker in “The Social Network,” this year the romantic comedy, “Friends with Benefits” & now the Sci-Fi Thriller, “In Time.” Set in the future, “In Time” is a simple story about the “Haves” & the “Have Nots.”
The currency isn’t money, it’s seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years, decades & tens of decades. In this world, humans age until their full growth peak of 25 years old. That’s when everyone stops aging. The time display on your forearm allows just one more year of life. One year, not a second more or less.
The way to stay alive in this game (of life) is obtain more time. Beg, borrow, steal. Most people are poor and only have one or two days worth of time. You get up, work & you’re given a few precious hours, another day. Just enough hours so you have to come back the next day, just in the nick of time.
Timberlake plays Will Salas, a guy in the ghetto who lives day to day. He represents the masses. In a twist of very good fate, Will finds himself with more time than he ever dreamed. Imagine, you were walking down the street & you found a wheelbarrow filled with thousand dollars bills & it was all yours. So now Will is upwardly mobile. He was to mix it up with the ultra rich. This is where society takes its time, because they have more than they could ever use.
It’s there where he meets Sylvia Weis, (Amanda Seyfried) a woman who comes from time. Her father, Philippe Weis (Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser) owns & operates the largest Time Lending Company on the planet. Long story/short, Will & Sylvia make a run for it. I like the cops of this world: Time Keepers. Cillian Murphy plays Raymond Leon, a time cop that’s been on the beat for well over 50 years. Sylvia finally learns what life is like when you can only live it day to day.
The film is set and filmed in Los Angeles for a specific reason. People in LA seem to be much more obsessed with youth & the idea of staying young. Take note. You won’t see any graffiti in the movie, because people in this world just don’t have time to waste on such nonsense. I liked how people in the ghetto were always rushing. No choice. If you only had 12 hours before you ‘Timed Out,’ you’d hustle, double-step & eat your food on the run every single day.
At the end of the day, it’s a Robin Hood story of stealing time from the rich & giving it to the poor. The filmmakers aren’t being coy. This is social commentary. Those on the political right will have a field day dissecting “In Time.” It’s all about redistributing wealth. Those on the top want to keep it all while those on the bottom are quite literally dying in the streets because they’re out of time.
“In Time” is rated PG-13
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