more deserving of thought that some have given it...

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2013)

I admit I am the type of person who doesn't always see the flaws in a movie, especially if I am taken in by such things as metaphors or deeper meanings beneath the surface. I was really taken in in this movie. Imagine a world where living day to day is literal and not a metaphor. In the world of "In Time" if you are poor then you are literally watching your own personal clock and should that clock run out then your life ends. In this world time is the currency and if you are poor then there is no time for leisure because you are literally spending the time you have left. In comparison if you are rich then you have nothing but time to spare. The richest could potentially have millions of years and could potentially live forever without a single moment's fear that their life might suddenly end. I think this really added a poignant emphasis on the problems of capitalist society and the differences between the haves and the have-nots. In the real world not having enough money might mean you don't eat regularly but in the world of this movie it literally means that the next day may be your last day.
I thought the movie was fairly well executed. The writers took common phrases, "time out", "upper hand", "spare some time", "spending time" and worked them into the world and the way these meanings could change if it was time and not money that was the currency. There were feelings, very vague feelings, of Les Miserable (the "time keeper" who was almost like a kind of police force, living for the job and rather than for justice and "keeping order") and Bonny and Clyde (the male and female partners robbing banks though there is also a robin hood feel to these characters as well). I am not sure if these similarities were deliberate or simply what I picked up on.
I did not feel that one had to follow the movie too closely or pay attention as much as some movies in order to follow the story. I though it was well told and had some undertones that are perhaps easily missed under the action and more blunt aspects. As it is though, it was a movie I think deserved higher ratings than it got.