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Tuesday, November 1, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
In Time
When
Time Is Money, And Literally Your Life
Justin Timberlake as Will and Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia in Andrew Niccol's
sci-fi action film "In Time".
Sony Pictures Classics
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Tuesday,
November 1, 2011
Andrew Niccol's opulent and stylish "In Time"
makes its cars eye candy like you've never seen.
That's less important to note than that the film,
which works conceptually but whose script doesn't give the story much to fly on,
is a thoroughly appealing satire and action film about the present day economy,
even though "In Time" -- winner of the year's second worst title for a film
(after "I Don't
Know How She Does It") -- is set in the near future.
Justin Timberlake, fast becoming a serious acting
talent, plies his trade convincingly in the action genre as Will Salas, a poor
man who has a year to live.
Just for reminders for the town of Dayton's
citizenry, the year of remaining time is imprinted in bright green digital
hours, minutes and seconds on Will's wrist.
(Every human in this edition of Los Angeles who
can tell time does as well. No tattoos, just digital clocks.)
Will is 25, but he doesn't age, and has lived
about 75 years.
A charmed life?
Not exactly.
He's framed for a murder of a man who has time to
burn -- literally centuries of it -- and like a true philanthropist he donates
many times more life spans to Will.
At least three people are looking for him.
Like Mr. Niccol's "Gattaca", "In Time" has
beautiful cinematography and an ice cold, almost robotic veneer.
It breaks through the surface, however, on many
occasions with sharp tongue-in-cheek humor and great performances by Mr.
Timberlake and especially Cillian Murphy, a sympathetic figure named The
Timekeeper aka Raymond Leon.
A man with his own secrets, Raymond shrewdly keeps
his foes off balance in the guise of part villain, part detective and part
antihero.
Mr. Murphy has a field day in the role, in one of his
best performances ever, shading his character and all his varied dimensions
marvelously.
Amanda Seyfried offers a sly, knowing contrast
as Sylvia, a rich girl kept on a tight leash by her domineering Rockefeller rich
father Philippe Weis, who -- you guessed it -- looks young enough to be her
boyfriend.
"In Time" offers plenty of comic moments, especially one
where Philippe introduces Will to his wife, sister and daughter Sylvia in swift
succession.
He looks as if he's about to burst out laughing.
Sylvia will become a Patty Hearst of sorts, held hostage to eventually
participate in some good old fashioned Robin Hooding -- or if you prefer --
redistribution of wealth to the poorer citizens.
"In Time" stays mostly surface but its message
about the richest 1% and the poorest 99% hits deep, especially now as Occupy
movements have resonated with so many around the world.
Mr. Niccol, who also wrote the film's screenplay,
manages to entertain us with a dire, gloomy reality without making the subject
seem trenchant, boring or redundant.
The film's pop-futuristic gloss may be alluring,
and stylistically one might have expected this film to be more drab -- and it
could have been -- but the life of "In Time" is intended as a showy spectacle of
empty desperate people clinging to their last seconds and pining for more.
Money is no object. Time is everything.
Olivia Wilde shows up early on as Will's mother,
and you can't be too surprised if you hear laughter from your surrounding
audience members.
And no one may laugh harder or with more
incredulity than if you say that "In Time" as executed, is a better film than
"Inception".
Yet it is.
It's more tightly focused, clearer and
entertaining, and doesn't get lost in itself or enamored by its own pretension
or grandiosity.
It's the best sci-fi film since "Minority Report",
and a more engaging experience than this year's
"Source Code"
or "The
Adjustment Bureau".
With: Vincent Kartheiser, Adam Jamal Craig, Collins Pennie, Bella Heathcote,
Shyloh Oostwald, Johnny Galecki, Michael William Freeman, Matt Bomer.
"In Time" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
violence, some sexuality and partial nudity, and brief strong language. The film's running time is
one hour 49 minutes.
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