However, "Logan's Run" represented a distortion of equality where all people share a common, pre-defined lifespan under a false pretense that some will be saved by lottery. In "Time", time is literally money. Wages are paid in hours, basic commodities and services are paid for in minutes, and the poor literally live day to day, struggling to keep from "timing out."
The wealthy live in their own Time Zones, like "New Greenwich". Seemingly young and privileged, the residents suffer from Brave New World ennui. When a man has 100 years "on his clock", the last thing he needs are accidents. When time, wealth, commodities are perfectly fungible, he avoids any risk.
Writer-director Andrew Niccol has fun using retro elements in the film, as he did in the superior "Gattaca". The Timekeepers - cops who investigate time robberies and homicides - drive modified Chargers that seem off a lot from the late 60s. The ghetto cars seem culled from 1981's "Escape from New York". And Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell from "Mad Men") looks like he walked in from the set of that AMC TV favorite, Brooks Brothers suit and all, to play social Darwinist millionaire Phillippe Weis. Sylized production design underlines the common science fiction theme that an end to time would mean an end to progress.
There are solid chase scenes in car and on foot. Most benefit from seeming possible: simple rooftop chases; all four wheels on the asphalt; few massive crashes and no billowing fireballs. The script is economic; there are no memorable lines but also no clunkers.
The film does not make a big impression, despite its promise. It feels pulped from shreddings of "Logan's Run", "The Fugitive", "The Transporter", "Matrix Reloaded", and a family-friendly "Bonnie and Clyde" broadsheet. Perhaps it suffers from global marketing strategies, too: no cursing, no blood, no politics, no nudity - not even confirmation that the heroes finally consummate their relationship.
Like many blockbusters, the film focuses on the extremes of the Haves and the HaveNots. One extraordinary HaveNot will defeat a short list of strawmen and take down a corrupt system. The problem is that the film starts with positing a next step in Capital, where technological achievement has enabled time itself to be converted to currency. There does not seem to be any Achilles heal for our hero to target.
Rather than posit new ideas or retreat into defeatism, the script devolves into a Bonnie and Clyde myth, with Will and his love interest stealing time to give to the poor. While this seems weak on any given release date, now it is D.O.A. With the Wall Street Occupation entering its fifth week, as Tea Party candidates parade regressive flat tax proposals at weekly GOP debates, and the country's faith in the economy drops with each poll, is it too much to wish that the film could have a denouement other than stealing daddy's first million and then storming the Federal Reserve?
| Movie title | In Time |
|---|---|
| Release year | 2011 |
| MPAA Rating | PG-13 |
| Our rating | |
| Summary | Another retro sci-fi future from director Andrew Niccol, this one a riff on "Logan's Run" in which time literally is money. |
