"In Time" directed and written by Andrew Niccol, stars Cillian Murphy (as Raymond Leon), Justin Timberlake (Will Salas), Amanda Seyfried (as Sylvia Weis), Olivia Wild (as Rachel Salas) and Jonny Galecki (as Borel). The movie is set in the future 2161 to be exact, where everyone stops aging at 25 and stays that way for the rest of their lives, but the rest of their life might at times be shorter than they've expected, because time in this future is literary money and without that time=money you truly do not survive, because once they turn 25 they only have one more year to live unless they earn more years, this of course enable some to become immortals, but like in our society today also then many have to suffer for a few to enjoy everything life has to offer. Now rich become richer and poor poorer, in the future according to "In Time", rich become immortal and poor mortal.
Our hero is Will Salas a 28 year old factory worker who lives together with his 50 year old mother Rachel. One day during a visit at a bar, Will meets 105 year old Henry Hamilton who has a lot of time left on his clock and flaunts it around a bar in the ghettos. Will senses that Henry will get into trouble by showing off his time and advises him to stop it and leave. But who seeks trouble finds it, such is the case with Henry who is confronted by a gang that call themselves Minutemen. They steal other people's time by force. Will helps Henry out of the situation not realizing that Henry wanted to die. After the rescue Henry tells Will that there is enough time for everyone to live, but its being used by the rich to become immortal and mighty. This set of information triggers Will's actions, right after he receives all the time Henry's got left except the last 5 minutes, with which Henry goes and commits suicide. Will leaves the Ghetto and moves to a richer area New Greenwich, from here on the chase between the Timekeepers (police forces) starts, because they believe that Will has stolen that time. In order to have a save ticket out of the situation he kidnaps Sylvia the daughter of a very wealthy businessman and begins his so to speak Robin Hood quest, at the same time falls in love with Sylvia and she with him, including the Stockholm syndrome as a further sub-plot into the drama. From here on starts the typical blockbuster action movie that we are used to, embedded with all its clichés, explosions, fight scenes, chasing, dramatic love, drama and of course or maybe happy ending.
The only thing important and interesting in this movie is the whole idea it is based on and the open criticism on capitalism, economy and its message that each and every moment is valuable, with or without the time, after all in our present time we do not know what will happen tomorrow so we might as well enjoy today and in the future, according to In Time, we truly value each moment, because the next one might certainly be the last one, but even there we worry because even in the last minutes we worry and seek a way to prolong our lives.
It is no surprise that the movie revolves around social criticism. The one characteristics that all Andrew Niccol movies share is their criticism towards our society and where we are heading, towards a dystopian future that we certainly do not want to be a part of, but are doing nothing against and stand there and accept it, even though we do not agree with it. Just think Gattaca (1997/writer and director), The Truman Show (1998/writer), Lord of War (2005/writer and director) or The Terminal (2004/writer), all of these movies have one thing in common they taunt us. Why? We sit in the theater and see the things that are wrong, we agree with the things that are wrong and watch the hero save the day in awe, but none of us really act out once the movie is done and tries to be the hero by speaking out, so yes all this movies criticize our society rightly and they also taunt us, because we still only sit and watch things happen not interfering, after all why should we? Let others care about those matters right? Until its to late.
At times blockbusters are not simply existent for our sole amusement, they have messages embedded in them some better than the others, but when it comes to Andrew Niccol movies the criticisms are accurate and he puts them out there to send a message. This is the only reason why Andrew Niccol might be one of my favorite director and writer out there in mainstream Hollywood, because he tries to convey the right message during the right time by means of popular culture. All his movies match the worries of the time they are written in, for example "The Truman Show", was an accurate theme (and still is) during the end of the 90s because of the uprise of CCTV's and the likes, or "Lord of War", which highlights arms trafficking by the international arms industry and is close in contact with the happenings in the Middle East around the time of its release; After all arms industries need war and uproar to sell weapons, peace is not an option.
So to sum up, even though "In Time" is a cheese blockbuster movie, with a touch of Robin Hood meets Brave New World and capitalism versus communism, capitalism being the bad guy (immortals) and communism or if it makes you feel better socialism being the good guy (Will Salas as the future Robin Hood and Sylvia Weis as the future Marian), the points Niccol makes are truly something to think about and take away from a 109 minute of popular cultural entertainment. Last but not least think about the memorable quote from the movie "For a few immortals to live, many must die", does it ring a bell? If so start doing something, if you don't agree with it.
