Hey Buddy, Can You Spare Some Time?

Rating: 6/10 (30 October 2011)

Greetings again from the darkness. Now this is a terrific premise for a sci-fi story. You have surely heard the phrase: Time is Money. Well in this world, Time is not just money, it is Life itself. Time is everything ... and it's displayed for all to see via a neon green counter on everyone's forearm.
The film has an odd look. Vehicles look like modernized versions of 1970's classics, but fashion and other technology seems basically unchanged. Society is divided more severely than today. but the commentary is clear.
All people live until 25 at which time they stop aging and the clock starts. They are given ONE year and are free to earn, gamble or spend their time ... heck, some even gamble. When your clock hit Zero, you drop dead immediately. So, the working class is isolated in time zones, running from place to place and taking extra shifts at the plant to pay the rent. The rich live in Connecticut and try to find ways to leisurely spend their days that will never end.
Justin Timberlake plays Will Salas, one of the poor ones. In a scene that will have you scratching your head, Olivia Wilde plays his mom (remember, you stop aging at 25). Will has a chance meeting with Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) who has lived more than 100 years and still has more than a century left. After a deep, philosophical conversation, Will ends up with Henry's time and is a suspect in his murder.
Will runs off to Connecticut and is pursued by the Timekeeper Police led by Cillian Murphy. Will ends up in the lavish home of Philippe Weiss (Vincent Katheiser from Mad Men) and falls for his daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). They end up on the lam and turn into the ultimate Time Bandits ... Robin Hood who steals time from the rich and distributes to the poor.
While the premise is promising, some of the best stuff is left untouched. Henry Hamilton would have been a fascinating character to get a little more backstory on. Cillian Murphy's character is obviously talented and a bit burned out. It's a bit disconcerting to see most of the people in a movie to look all about the same age, but that's a very cool product of this society. As is the "big board" of time that looks eerily similar to the Stock Market boards we see that track movement every moment of the day. Time is precious and is of course watched over.
Writer/director Andrew Niccol also brought us Gattaca and Lord of War. I would have liked this one to go a bit deeper, but it's fun to watch Timberlake and Seyfried playing Bonnie and Clyde. Thinking about this from a monetary standpoint is pretty interesting, but it also reminds us that there's never enough time!