Great concept, sinful movie

Rating: 5/10 (28 February 2015)

From the outset of In Time, I was willing to follow the "time is money" concept. Sure it was far fetched, but it was intriguing. I held on, content with Timberlake's acting, how the story unfolded, the cinematography, and the music worked well.
Half an hour into the movie, and the illusion begins to die. A combination of poor editing, writing, and acting left the main chunk of the plot disjointed. I felt character motivations were left of field, or at least not explained well. I felt the dialogue between characters was very stock standard, and made the characters seem hollow. I swear they repeated the "is it stealing if its already stolen" line over 10 times.
But worst of all, what let this movie down, was its coherency. I felt like there were gaps in the narrative that were lazily breezed over, and just left me confused. They also forced in a love story, which goes to show how dimensional the character can be. And I'm not sure whether the script or the editing is to blame, but they botched the pacing.
For example, How do Will and Sylvia get dry after swimming in the ocean? How do they travel to the ghetto without crossing any borders? How do they hide in the pawn shop, did they have a key? How come the timekeeper takes so long to shoot Will? How does Will disguise himself as one of Weis' guards???
I know these might seem pedantic, but for me, it ruined the believability of this film. Just look at the hotel room scene where they "arm wrestle". This scene is so sinful. Firstly, Will's technique for winning seems stupid, and only works because Fortis doesn't look like he's trying. Secondly, how come they didn't find the gun on his leg, these gangsters are terrible gangsters. And lastly, why is the acting so poor? If I were Fortis, and I saw my men get killed, and know I was about to die I might emote some fear and shock, but Pettyfer gave us nothing.
Overall, and alright film that should have put more effort into its own illusion or the precious life lessons it teaches the audience will get lost. Really, it started well, but ultimately put action and regurgitate dialogue above the plot.