(Watch this trailer–it’s basically the movie)
It’s like:
Gattaca meets The Island with a little bit of Bonnie and Clyde thrown in
Stars You’d Know:
Lots, actually: Justin Timberlake, Big Love’s Amanda Seyfried, White Collar’s Matt Bomer, House’s Olivia Wilde, Mad Men’s Pete Campbell (sorry, fella, you’ll always be know by that name and not your own), Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki, America’s Next Top Model contestant Yaya DaCosta (whose crying scene was way better than JT’s) and an always impressive Cillian Murphy.
The Good:
The concept. The idea that once you turn 25, you live on borrowed time. You have to steal time, or work for time, and the concept of supply and demand, that the rich keep getting richer (by having the most time) and the poor keep getting poorer is a great contemporary societal notion. Little scenes, like watching the price of coffee go up (from 3 minutes to 4 minutes) and constantly watching you clock to make sure you have enough hours to make it to the next day is a very interesting idea to me. Very sci-fi and very cool.
JT and Amanda’s chemistry. Yeah. Two hot actors have chemistry. Big surprise there. But I’m surprised at how well they didn’t pound it over the head with their chemistry. Sure, of course, there is a kinda-love story and Justin’s abs, and Amanda’s boobs, but it could’ve been really bad. It wasn’t. It was very equal on both their parts, and they’re Bonnie and Clyde routine was believable.
Amanda Seyfried actually didn’t bother me as much as I thought. It must have been her hair. I think she was more believable than JT, but we’ll get to that later. The only thing I cannot get over is that she ran for way too long in way too high of heels. Sorry guys, but in the future, girl’s feet will not be made of plastic so they can run around in 5 inch heels. Just.not.happening.
Justin and Matt’s bonding scene in an abandoned warehouse. I like this scene. I liked the way it was shot (two shots in shadows, singles, etc.) I like the exchange. It seemed like there was a little too much expository, but I felt like Matt elevate Justin’s acting. It was a nice scene.
Cillian Murphy can do no wrong. He just oozes coolness, and as “The Timekeeper”, you could just see the amount of depth he brought to this what could have been one-dimensional character. Murphy is the type of actor that, even if the dialogue is horrid (which it was), he still brings the backstory to every single sentence that he utters. He needs to get better roles than just the villain. He is THAT good.
The Bad:
Oh, where to begin? I love me some Justin, but he was so miscast in this role. His “crying” scene in the beginning…so not believable. He gets beat up so many times, but he’s always WAY TOO PRETTY afterward. He has potential, he’s just not there yet. He can take his shirt off as many times as he wants (yes, please!) but a 6-pack does not, in fact, make you an actor.
The death scenes of certain main characters are just too quick, almost comically leaving abruptly just so that JT and Amanda can start running again.
Oh, and the running…I get that if you run, you waste less time, but at every plot turn, they are running. EVERY. SINGLE. PLOT. TWIST. It’s almost like being in a film scriptwriting class, and saying, ok, at page 40, we’re going to have them run, and then at page 100, we’re going to have this huge conflict, so let’s have them run again…so annoying.
The dialogue: very one-dimensional. They almost always talked in soundbytes. Like they were in a music video or a trailer. It was comical at times, annoying at other times.
The Verdict:
In Time is a strong concept in theory, but like most theories, fell short. It lacked in plot structure, powerful dialogue and in-depth acting. When the theatre audience is laughing at the dialogue delivery (and not in a good way) you know there is something wrong with the execution. While Justin Timberlake’s performance seemed like an Acting 101 exercise, he’s got potential. Just needs a few more Chekov’s under his belt. And while I did, in fact, enjoy In Time, I would recommend this: save yourself some time and wait for it on DVD.
