In Time DVD Review

Science fiction is the genre most adept at addressing the current concerns and problems of our culture. In Time tackles the far-from-equal distribution of wealth in our society, with the increasing disparity between the rich and poor. It shows that it is quite literally a matter of life and death, as time has become the currency in this future. People have been genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. However, they get only one more year of time to spend, unless they're able to acquire more. Thus, the rich are able to live forever, and the poor are lucky to make it to 26, usually needing to spend that one year of time to pay off debts. Each person has a glowing green clock on his or arm that starts ticking the moment he or she turns twenty-five. (All of this is mentioned in the opening voice over.)

People are able to trade (or steal time) by holding each other by the arm. It's not really explained any further than that. Do they just think of the amount that they'd like to give, and their brains send the message down to their arms? It's not clear. A lot is unclear in this movie. It's never explained how or why this widespread genetic engineering took place. We see a shot of a newborn, and the baby has a clock already on his arm. Of course, it won't start ticking for another twenty-five years, but it's already there. So the clock has become part of our natural physical bodies. How? And why 25? I guess it's a nice age to be forever. Tough luck, however, for anyone who is attracted to older men or women in this future. No granny porn in this society.

In Time stars Justin Timberlake as Will Salas, a poor man who lives day-to-day in the ghetto, where a group of hoodlums called the Minutemen terrorize folks by stealing time from them. Will's mother's time is almost up, but he's going to fight (essentially arm wrestle) for more time. But at the bar he meets Henry Hamilton, a man with more than a century on his arm, a man who wants to die. Will rescues him from the Minutemen, though he clearly doesn't want rescuing. And in the morning, Henry gives Will all but five minutes of his time. Henry then goes to a bridge to die. Will rushes to him, but doesn't make it in time. Surveillance cameras (which of course are everywhere, as this is a serious dystopia and nothing like our current situation - hey, wait a minute) catch Will at the bridge, so he becomes the suspect in the death of Henry (which is wonderfully referred to as a theft rather than murder).

Now that he has a century, Will can take his mother to New Greenwich, where the rich folks live (different time zones denote different strata of wealth). His mother has only an hour and a half left on her clock, and the bus fare has gone up from one hour to two hours, so she can't ride the bus to meet Will. So she starts running. But doesn't quite make it. So now Will swears to take vengeance on the rich. He goes to New Greenwich and enters a casino where people gamble with their time. Early in the film it sets up that Will is a good poker player and that he knows how to fight (arm wrestle), so of course both of those things play a significant role later. In New Greenwich, Will keeps running into a sexy girl named Sylvia, played by Amanda Seyfried, who was also in Nine Lives (2005) and Letters To Juliet (2010), as well as the god-awful Mamma Mia! (2008). He sees her at the casino (she's wearing a gorgeous white fur), and it turns out she's the daughter of the man he beat at poker, an insanely rich man who owns a chain of banks.

Unfortunately for Will, the cops (who are called Timekeepers) track him down, leading to him kidnaping Sylvia in order to escape. Will Salas professes his innocence in the death of Henry Hamilton. But of course it's not really about Henry. It's about time being in the wrong hands. It's about keeping people in their place, and keeping the system going. The concept of this film is excellent.

And the rich control the cost of living for the poor. Multiple times it's said that not everyone can live forever, because there would be no room on the planet. So for a few to be immortal, many must be sacrificed. Thus, it's important to the rich to keep the poor in their place, to make sure they die. Because of that, if the poor are able to get more money (that is, time), the rich - who control the economy - simply raise the cost of bus fare, of food, of rent. So that the poor still can't get ahead, that they stay poor. This should hit home for a lot of us.

But unfortunately the script just isn't that great. The idea is excellent, but the script could have used another draft or two. There are some excellent scenes, like when Will is caught by the Minutemen. And I do like the 99 Seconds Only store joke. But there is some bad dialogue. There are too many lines that are on-the-nose, giving the impression that the filmmaker is talking down to us. For example, when Will steals from a rich blonde, he says, "I'd say your money or your life, but since your money is your life." Yes, we know, we know. And would he even say that? After all, it's not like Will ever saw actual money. Money was gone before his life began.

The film does answer some obvious questions a viewer might have. For example, I was wondering what would happen if someone jumped off a bridge while still having several years left. That is answered later when someone says that only a random act of violence can take your life. So they're not truly immortal.

But many other questions are left unanswered. Apart from the already stated questions about how these clocks are run, and who created them and so on, there are other areas left unaddressed. How was all disease eradicated from the planet? And is a new virus or disease impossible? Can people eat junk food and remain healthy? Does food have any effect on their systems whatsoever? What if they just don't eat at all? What about being a heavy drinker - does that have no effect on the person's body? When someone's time runs out, what is it precisely that happens - does his or her heart stop, or does the brain suddenly die?

We see the very poor, who work in factories, have nothing, and can't enjoy life. And we see the very rich, who do nothing, and don't really enjoy life. But what about the folks in the middle? Will Salas drives through the other time zones, but we don't see anything of them. Are there artists in this future? Does anyone pursue a career in a creative field? Is there any creativity at all? Are there books being written, movies being filmed, paintings being created, albums being recorded? Perhaps that's beyond the scope of the film, but because of that, this movie remains very much on the surface of things. We never really become immersed in the world.

The DVD does include a deleted scene where folks are dancing, which is nice. We actually see people enjoying life. And the deleted scenes also include a scene of the rich enjoying themselves too, which is a bit different from the dance. In a scene where Will and Sylvia are stealing from the rich, we see two prostitutes tied up and blindfolded. Another of my questions is answered in the deleted scenes. I was wondering what would happen if someone simply cut off his arm, and thus the clock. In a deleted scene, Will's friend says he wants to cut off his clock. His wife says it would still be ticking inside him, he just wouldn't know how much time he had left.

Again, the concept of this film is great. The idea that money really is time, and that if you run out of money, you die. My friend turned to me when we were watching this and said that in this world we both would have already been dead a long time. True. And of course there is the frightening aspect of everyone looking similar. A grandmother, mother and daughter would all look very similar in this future, all having stopped aging at twenty-five. That makes for interesting relationships. And though this is mentioned in the film, the idea isn't fleshed out. We know from one scene that a prostitute who is sixty is still active, but so what? Do people who are 27 date people who are 100? This is an interesting area that is left unexplored.

In Time was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, who also directed the excellent Gattaca (1997). The DVD is scheduled to be released on January 31, 2012.

By the way, if I had a bright green light on my arm, I'd never be able to get to sleep.