Needs time to appreciate.

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2011)

Contrary to many of the other reviews I have read regarding this movie, and indeed contrary to my accompanying movie buddy, I thought it was awesome. The plot is pure genius, the time-as-currency metaphor is a clever social observation and the interplay of the two is written real well into the dialogue. Before heading to the movie theatre I took a few minutes to acclimate myself with the plot; which was well worth doing as the movie itself jumps quite quickly into the main story without explaining the premise in much detail, which adds to the confusion a little, and means you don't truly appreciate how smartly conceived this movie is until maybe the next day, having thought more about it. In terms of execution I enjoyed the future-meets-retro styling (i'm calling it Futro because i'm creative like that). This is most evident in the vehicles, but also in the costumes, hairstyling and architecture. Often it's easy to imagine the future as a blank canvas of high technology and spaceship-esque style, but the future imagined here is much more realistic of our repeating retro trends, which I guess adds to the movie's "this could actually happen in our lifetime" feeling; with the added bonus that it looks cool! The 3 main characters were well played, although Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried did not have the greatest chemistry, it never felt that they were truly working together either in or out of character. The Timekeeper character could have perhaps had a little more screen time, Cillian Murphy's role was limited mostly to looking moody while chasing after Timberlake and Seyfried. Toward the end the character seemed to show potential for a lot more depth that was not realised. Once again it is an example of where this movie lets the audience work things out for themselves rather than ram the plot down their throats. So in conclusion, if you have the time to truly involve yourself in the movie and understand the underlying messages and plot twists then it is well worth the admission, otherwise, for the more casual viewer it can understandably leave you confused. I say, take the time.