In Time
I read a short story in magazine, it must've been over 30 years ago, called "Time is Money". When I saw the trailer for this movie and its basic premise, I knew that I had to see the movie. I knew that they probably changed a bunch of stuff, and it probably wouldn't be nearly as good as the original story, but the original story wasn't perfect, either. As with most short stories, it's really more of a "what if...?" thing fleshed out a bit.
It wasn't bad. The premise is that they've finally isolated and disabled the gene that makes us age, and further, figured out how to activate it when you turn 25. Once you hit 25, you stop aging and will basically look like that for the rest of your life, and since you're not aging, the rest of your life can be a very long time. You're not actually immortal; you can still be killed or die of disease, but other than that, you can theoretically live forever.
Obviously this can't quite work. As one character says early in the movie, we can't all live forever; where would you put everybody?
So it works like this. When you turn 25, a clock is activated. You are given one year. Time literally is money; it is the currency. A cup of coffee costs four minutes. Bus fare to Dayton costs two hours. That kind of thing. You work, you earn time for your time. You pay for things in time. So that one year is a baseline, and you want to add to it. Rich people have years and years in the bank. Hundreds, even thousands of years.
Anyway, the system is broken and there's a few people with lots of time and most people living day-to-day (literally) and occassionally dying when they "time out". In the ghettos, you can be mugged or killed for your time. One guy learns about a supposed conspiracy where the rich people who control things are the ones who keep raising taxes and the cost of living, and he sets out to fix things.
They had some trouble fleshing out the story, as there are some inherent problems with how such a society would really work, so while you would normally say "turn your brain off and just enjoy the movie" I had a little trouble because the whole point of sci-fi is engaging your brain and appreciating how they made everything work. And it didn't always work. But most things worked, and the few things that didn't were okay if you didn't think too hard, plus you had Amanda Seyfried in both a skinny-dipping scene and a strip poker scene (she loses, by the way) so that was cool, Justin Timberlake suprisingly doesn't suck, and Cillian Murphy steals the show as always. Olivia Wilde is hot as always, and Matt Bomer is great in a small but important role.
Overall score: 6 out of 10, maybe 7 if you're not too picky.
Topic: The Movie Thread v. Ultimatum (Read 198198 times)
