If You Can Buy the Premise an Enjoyble Dystopian Story, 2 Hours Possibly Worth the Time

Rating: 7/10 (6 November 2011)

What if our bodies never aged passed 25, and we could conceivably live forever? Obviously, this is a situation most people would probably desire. Except, what if there was one hitch: that at the age of 25 we are given only one additional year to live, and the only means of extending our lifetimes beyond that one year, passed the age of 26, is to trade time like money which is in turn used to trade for other goods and services. A cup of coffee costs 4 minutes. A room in a sleazy hotel costs two weeks, while one night in a luxury hotel costs 5 months. A luxury car costs 50 years. A day's wage at a factory might give you a few days while working at a higher-end job can give you more. Rich people can make hundreds if not thousands of years, while poor people are often scrabbling to add a few days, hours, sometimes a few minutes, trying to extend their lifetimes long enough to allow them to get "more time". This is the premise of "In Time", in which commodities are not traded with money but with lifetime.
In this world, people can give their lifetime freely or may be forced to give up their time by the government or thieves known as minute men who mug people for their time. Time is usually not wasted but stored on devices which can be transferred to others. The amount of time each individual has is shown on their left forearm through 13 digits. Some people have literally hundreds of years while others are continually scrambling to add days. Once the clock on the arm reaches 13 0's, the person expires immediately. People can give time to each other by engaging in a kind of hand shake, although this can be done by force as well.
On the outset, it seems like a level playing field. But in this dystopia, it isn't. The world is divided into Time Zones. The lower numbered time zones are where people with thousands of years reside, while those in the higher time zones are in the equivalent of a ghetto where people are constantly fighting for time. To keep the lower classes in their place, it costs a hefty toll to pass between time zones. Will Salas lives in Time Zone 12. His mother, who doesn't look a day passed 25, is celebrating her 50th birthday. Over the course of 25 years, she's been able to add time, but like most people living on the edge, she has to take menial jobs to add time. On her 50th birthday, she doesn't have much time left according to her arm.
Will goes to work, and upon check-out receives his pay, an increase in time reflected on his arm, although he complains his pay was lower that day. After work, he goes to a bar and meets someone from one of the lower-numbered time zones. The new-comber shows his arm which indicates he has over a century left. Will warns him he will be the target of muggers called minute men who will try to steal his time. He helps him escape, and later learns the man is 105 years old in real time, although this man says he's ready for his life to be over. They fall asleep, and the stranger gives Will a century of new life, leaves the premises and dies shortly thereafter.
Will now has over a century of life, but doesn't realize that there are governmental forces in place to keep "time" out of the hands of the lower classes. Using his gift, he enters into another time zone where the wealthy reside. He begins to mingle with the elite, some of whom have hundreds if not thousands of years to spend on luxury cars, luxury mansions, and casino gambling. As one character put it "Many must die for a few to be immortal". He meets an older gentleman Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser of "Mad Men" fame) who is 75 years old, again who looks very young. Weis owns time banks which loans out time at inflated prices in the other time zones allowing him to be a kind of Donald Trump of time. Weis invites Will into his circle and introduces him to his daughter Sylvia Weis; unbeknownst to them Will is from the lower classes and wanted by the time police.
The only aspect I felt was missing from "In Time" is a further explanation of the nature of time itself and how it came to be traded to buy commodities. We learn how the world works but are never told how the technology came into being and if there was a time before when lifetime wasn't traded. I expected a scene where maybe the two leads would find out the inner workings of how this came to be. I also wondered if there was a means of "turing off the clock" but the story never questions its own premise.
Still a very interesting idea and works if you buy into the premise. The analogy is maybe a little obvious, in the sense that we are all constantly trying to buy time to some degree. The constant references of the prices of goods in terms of "time" are quite amusing, and done naturally and tastefully. One of the best scenes is when Will engages in a poker game in which the "time" stakes become very high.