In Time

So I leave the country for 4 weeks and when I come back Justin Timberlake's a movie star. How'd that happen? OK so maybe he had a small role in 'The Social Network', but now a leading role in an interesting-looking Science fiction film? Well it's probably for the best that the world continues to surprise me.

'In Time' is one of those great little science fiction premises. The kind of thing you wonder how Phillip K Dick or one of his like didn't think of it. Imagine a world in which time literally is money. Everyone is genetically engineered to stop ageing at the age of 25. At that time you're awarded one more year to live. You're free to then spend this time as currency, earn more time by working and live your life as you wish. Most people struggle with debt and live day to day before they finally get unlucky and expire. A tiny minority are stupendously wealthy though, with millennia to their names.

What we have here is a neat metaphor for the type of hyper capitalism that's ripping the Earth to shreds in real life. Time literally is money, and for the rich to get richer people in the ghetto have to give up their time and die. Timberlake's character (William Salas) has a chance encounter with a wealthy businessman who has seen too much and wants to die, Salas is given 100 years of time - almost more than he can comprehend. He escapes the ghetto to the world of the wealthy, eager to "... take them for all they've got." Though precisely why he resolves to do this is a little unclear; probably cos his mum died, but I don't see how that equates to bringing down the system. Ham-fisted though this metaphor is, it's still the kind of thing that gets my bolshie brain excited. Make no mistake about just how unsubtle 'In Time' is though, but I suppose Marx's theories on wage slavery aren't going to be presented in any other way in a Hollywood action scifi romp.

While Salas isn't explaining the cruelty of capitalism to anyone who'll listen, the film mainly takes the form of a Robin Hood-meets-Bonnie and Clyde heist movie with a number of very recognisable actors from TV and film. Cillian Murphy once again uses his mad eyes to play a sort of Lawful Evil character keeping the Proles in their place, while Vincent Kartheiser - well I guess that's exactly what he does too. Then there's Amanda Seyfried, who has very alluring eyes and does exceptionally well to run around in 6 inch heels and a cocktail dress. Lots of eyes going on in this film.

It'd be remiss to totally gloss over the various plot holes in 'In Time'. There is little consistency between prices in the film. A coffee is quoted as costing 4 minutes, which if you assume £2 for a cuppa means a month is ~£20,000. One of the posh hotels is charging a month for one night - seriously? Also, how do you spend money when you're younger than 25? And why is security at every bank in the city so bad?

Overall it isn't a great film. It's the kind of thing that would have made for a good chin-strokey episode of The Twilight Zone and 100 minutes is stretching the possibilities of the plot. But then it does have an excellent anti-capitalist thread to it, which raises it above a lot of the brainless scifi action films that we get these days. If I was into giving ratings out of 10, this would probably score a solidly-above-average 6.