Got a minute?

Rating: 6/10 (24 July 2012)

A study on The World Distribution of Household Wealth by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University from 2006 showed that 2% of world population hold more than 50% of global wealth. The inequality is staggering, but most of the people really don't think that much about it. But what if the wealth was measured by the years, months, days, hours, even minutes of our lives? It's an interesting idea examined by Andrew Niccol in his latest movie "In Time". In the movie, people are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25 and get one more year after that. But the time they get is also a currency. They have to work to get it more and pay bills with it. Of course, some things always remain the same, so there's small number of people who can practically live forever and a large number of those who don't know if they'll survive another day. It should be noted that the exchange of time between two people is fairly easy. They simply hold each other's forearms and the time flows from one to the other. The direction of the flow depends on whose forearm is up and whose down. It's obvious that it makes stealing a lot easier so the rich ones need even greater protection than they need in this world. So the world (we see only north America but it's safe to assume it applies to the whole world) is divided in time zones, from the ghettos to the zones where the "immortals" live. Traveling between zones isn't illegal but is extremely rare. Every zone has its border and the price you have to pay to enter and there aren't many who can afford it, and the rich ones don't travel but live in the safety of their time zone. Different currency asks for different control system and so we're introduced to the Timekeepers, some sort of police whose job is to keep track of time and make sure each time zone has the assigned amount of time. (Now thinking about it, definitely not the job for the White Rabbit.)
The movie follows Will Salas, a young man from the ghetto whose father was a sort of local Robin Hood, winning time in fights and distributing it to the poor. One evening Will has a chance encounter with Henry Hamilton, a man who came from New Greenwich, the city of rich people, with more than a hundred years on his clock. Henry thinks no one should live forever so he transfers his time to Will and goes on to time himself out, that is - kill himself. Will wakes up with more time that he could dream of and that's when things start to happen fast. After he fails to save his mother in a scene which is a pain to watch (seriously, it's the lowest point of the movie), he decides to take on the big guys and goes to New Greenwich. But the death of Henry Hamilton has been uncovered and Will is caught on security tape so the Timekeepers, led by enigmatic Raymond Leon, start sniffing on his trail. They find him in the house of Philippe Weis, one of the richest people in the world, but he manages to escape by holding hostage Philippe's spoiled daughter Sylvia. After that, not long is needed for Sylvia to realize who is the good guy and join Will in his quest to steal from rich and distribute to poor.
The premise of the movie is very interesting. As I already pointed out, and as anyone who thinks a little about it can notice, it reflects the current situation in real world, but with a twist. The idea of paying bills and buying stuff with time makes you think about all sorts of things. Would people be more careful with their spending? Would they take more care of the quality of their time? Those kind of questions and all other thought directions that the premise opens are the best thing about this movie. The rest unfortunately isn't on par but it isn't that bad either. The greatest flaws are in the script. Some scenes are overly melodramatic, a lot of the dialogue is clichéd and predictable and the characters are overly simplified (with the exception of timekeeper Leon). Fortunately, in most scenes the acting makes it bearable. The movie benefits from strong performances by Justin Timberlake as Will Salas and Cillian Murphy as Raymond Leon, but the rest of the cast isn't that far behind either. I must point out Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia Weis, who maybe had better performances ("Chloe"), but never looked as stunning as she does here. Credits for that must also be given to Colleen Atwood, a multiple Oscar winner costume designer, as well as to all the crew from makeup department who've done a great job.
It's a good movie, but it could've been better. I'll never get over the fact Niccol left such an interesting character as Raymond Leon so underused and didn't let us in on his past. On the other hand, it has a thought provoking theme and it's fun to watch, which is a rare combination nowadays, so my recommendation would be to watch it. That is, if you have any spare time...
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