Tedious film, but good idea: 'Don't waste my time'.

Rating: 4/10 (18 July 2012)

Writer/director Andrew Niccol had a good idea - having time be the trading commodity for a future time when everything is bought and sold with a person's inherent time on earth. But is it is a one-note song and that note gets so overused that monotony sets in.
The official description of the story is as follows: in a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage - a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.' Plug into this simplistic explanation the fact that Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) lives in a time zone equivalent to living on the wrong side of the tracks. He decides to go for the gold and with the help of his buddy Borel (Johnny Galecki) he sets out to cross through all the barriers (using his allotted stored time to buy passage) to get to the wealthy part of town - an area run by the Timekeeper (Cillian Murphy) and his staff (Alex Pettyfer et at). Will gains entry into the gambling casinos, bets his hours on Timekeeper at the table, wins, and meets the beautiful Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), daughter of the richest man in the city. From there on it is a 'catch me if you can' chase as Will and Sylvia try to outwit the Timekeeper and of course we know who is going to survive.
The dialogue is plebeian, the characters, with the possible exception of Will, are only given to us in outline form, so we end up not really caring about anyone. There are some interesting bits of surrealism tossed in but even those can't alter the fact that there is very little to work with in this little star turn for Timberlake.
Grady Harp