Great idea botched in 'Time'-ly sci-fi thriller
In the future, time isn't money.
Time is life.
The unsettling ideas to be found in "In Time," Andrew Niccol's disturbing glimpse of the near future, are the substance of science-fiction genius.
Niccol envisions a future world society in which money has been replaced by the more ethereal currency of time.
When you buy food, you pay with a few hours of your life.
Want to park your car? Take a bus? Pay a few minutes of your life.
The trick is to find a job that "pays" you well enough to keep on the black side of your chronological ledger sheet. If you run out of your allotted time <I>arghhhh! </I>Instant heart attack and death.
In Niccol's world, people are born with glowing, genetic clocks tattooed on their arms, set to expire at the age of 25. So, nobody physically ages past 25.
But people can still add time to their lives by earning, buying or stealing time from other people. They can transfer time between each other by locking forearms and mentally controlling transfers.
Or people can place their wrists into auto-debit machines that extract payments for purchases.
Some people have amassed more than a century of life.
The others?
Well, where do you think the "rich" people got their time?
"In Time" uses its temporal currency to launch a brilliant metaphorical attack against the inequitable, unjust distribution of wealth in America.
Niccol's movie is an "Occupy Wall Street" fantasy come true, an engaging parable that indicts a system fueled by greed, selfishness and disregard for humanity.
But Niccol botches it.
His future world lacks the Big Brother paranoia that should be oozing out of every frame. Some details don't seem quite right. (Are we still using desk phones with cords in the future?)
His biggest mistake was his main character of Will Salas, played by Justin Timberlake, who apparently had clippers to buzz-cut his hair, but no razor to shave his face.
Instead of making Will the average Joe that the character cries out to be, "In Time" turns him into an action hero who inexplicably can handle weapons, fight professional bodyguards, expertly race cars <I>backward,</I> and survive auto crashes that should have killed all occupants.
"In Time" starts on a soft note with Will explaining the movie's premise in unnecessary, dumbed-down voice-over narration that I strongly suspect Niccol added late in the production.
Will works as a blue-collar machine shop employee and lives with his 50-year-old mom (Olivia Wilde, yes,<I> the</I> Olivia Wilde), who can really run in high heels.
One night, Mom lets her clock run down and seconds before Will can give her a time transfer <I>arghhhh! </I>Instant heart attack and death.
This turns Will into an enemy of the state, a rebel who wants to bring down the system that killed his mommy.
"I'll make them pay!" he shouts. He gets help from a suicidal "old" man (Matthew Bomer) who gives Will more than 100 years of life.
He also hooks up with Sylvia (a wide-eyed Amanda Seyfried), daughter of a wealthy tycoon (Vincent Kartheiser) in the well-guarded time zone.
A ruthless time cop (Cillian Murphy) relentlessly chases Will, suspected of stealing his 100 years, so he takes Sylvia hostage, until she succumbs to Stockholm syndrome and falls in love with her captor.
This constitutes a major disappointment from Niccol, who created the astonishing futuristic thriller "GATTACA." He allows "In Time" to fall prey to puns, silly car chases and plot holes the size of Jupiter.
Still, the sheer moxie of its bold ideas keeps the story from being a total waste of ...
<I>Uh,</I> you know.
<b>"In Time"</b>
★ ★ ½
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG-13 for language, nudity, sexual situations and violence. 109 minutes.