–Samantha Coombes contributed with this report.–
What would you do if you only had a day to live? Well Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) shows you a good way how to in Andrew Niccol’s though provoking film, “In Time”.
Set in a not too distant dystopian future, time is the ultimate currency with everyone genetically engineered to stop aging at 25 and to only live a year after that. The poor live day by day earning time through any means necessary, whilst the rich live forever in luxury.
Will Salas, a 28 year old factory worker, is one of the many who earns to live each day. He finds himself in a whole new world when he’s given a century of time from a rich man, Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) who’s lost the will to live. However, now he’s hunted by not only a brutal time-bandit Fortis (Alex Pettyfer), but by a corrupt time-keeper called Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) who thinks he murdered Hamilton to take his time.
Salas goes on a mission to break a corrupt system that believes ‘many should die for a few to be immortal’ after his mother (Oliver Wilde) dies. He travels through the time zones to ‘North Greenwich’ where he gets a taste of the rich life before kidnapping Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of time tycoon Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). She’s never lived a day in her life with over a century on her clock, so it’s no wonder she is so taken with living each day as it comes as the two become wanted fugitives.
This kind of film has been done before but Niccol’s has taken an idea and given it a new edge: time as currency. It adds huge amounts of suspense to leave you on the edge of your seat with near death’s by the bucket load.
The performance by an all-star cast is strong and convincing, with the chemistry between Timberlake and Seyfried dragging you into their corrupt world further and further second by second.
Niccol’s puts sci-fi and a human story together effortlessly and it makes you question our society today. The film has a message and a point. It’s not just pretty faces acting badass by going against the authority’s to feel cool. It’s a mission against a system so corrupt; it may even be past saving.
The only criticism is of the poor graphics used to try and prove that crashing a convertible wouldn’t kill you instantly. But, it is easily looked over as the rest of the film is effortlessly executed and keeps you hooked until the very last minute.
It would definitely be time well spent if you did only have a day left to live.