Tuesday, November 8, 2011

In Time

In a dystopian future, the aging process stops at 25 years at which point people are given only 1 year to live, with time being the currency. An poor man saves a despondent man worth eons who transfers all of his time to him and jumps off a bridge. Now, faced with the murder charge, the newly enriched hero determines to kindnap a tycoon's daughter and redistribute the wealth, thus throwing off the unfairly tilted balance. Andrew Niccol ("The Truman Show", "Gattaca") is a writer/director who likes to use gimmickry in telling stories. Here he uses his time is money apparatus as a parable to the current economic crisis told in a "Logan's Run"/The Prince and The Pauper/"Bonnie and Clyde" sci-fi mashup, and the result is a badly written overlong preachfest. Justin Timberlake is barely tolerable in the lead (though he's not given any help from the script) and Amanda Seyfried sleepwalks her way through the picture. Supporting players Cillian Murphy and "Mad Men's" Vincent Kartheiser do their best to help the film. For a popcorn movie I guess this kind of works, but as social commentary its absolutely insufferable.
random thought: the word "time" was used so often here, after awhile I felt like I was watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and counting how many time's the word "who" was said