When Time is Everything

These days, our everyday lives are filled with monotonousness. Often it's the same deal working from day to day, earning our little salaries. Like they say money makes the world go around, right? But what if our everyday lives depended on something else... something a little more basic like... time? That's exactly the scenario in the action thriller In Time.



In In Time, the currency that makes the world go around is time. Yes time, the same one we stare at watches and clocks. You see, in the far future, humans are genetically-engineered to the point that they stop aging once they reach the age of 25. Basically meaning you'll get to look young and pretty forever. But that's also when your 'clock' starts.



You'll have to 'earn' your time like how we earn money, and every form of expense is in measurements of time. If your clock runs out, you die. Simple as that. Avoids overpopulation they say...



So Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) is just your average joe with an insanely hot mum (Olivia Wilde) who lives his life day-by-day.



One day he unknowingly inherits a fortune's worth of time and is thus hunted by corrupted time police called 'Timekeepers'. Upon exploring his new-found 'wealth', he stumbles across rich tycoon Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser) and is introduced to his hawt... i mean rebellious... daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried).



The two then later decide to turn full-on rebellious (oh, forgot to mention his hawt mum timed-out before he could share his century's worth of time) and go all Robin Hood with the time system.



Undeniably, In Time has a great idea going on. The concept of 'time is money' is utilised rather well, and we are shown how almost every part of our daily life is affected by it. However the film somehow loses it's way a little around two-thirds of the way and ends in a rather ambiguously unsatisfying manner. And is it just me or does everyone hybrid-converted drive vintage American muscle cars? Except our hero who instead drives a cool Jaguar E-Type which must be really ancient by that time. However the film it is still very enjoyable, as the mood, setting and action will keep you glued to the screen. Justin Timberlake was surprisingly not bad and Amanda Seyfried was simply stunning.



Perhaps they should have gone easy with the whole cat and mouse game, which gets tiring when the duo is chased by Timekeeper (Cillian Murphy) for the umpteenth time.



If you can ignore these little shortcomings, In Time is still a fun sci-fi flick with a creative concept and plenty of good-looking 20-somethings. And you can't go wrong with that.

3 Stars (out of 5)