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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        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
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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