Wednesday, November 16, 2011

In Time - In sync with these times

X-posting my FK review. Visit FK for further discussions.

Theatre: Fame Cinemas, Bangalore
Show: 7:45 PM, 5-Nov-2011
Status: House Full

In Time has a very interesting premise. A future where time is literally money and humans are immortals. There is a catch though. Your clock starts ticking at the age of 25. You have 1 more year on the clock that you can spend or live. You need to work hard for the entire life and earn time to stay alive. The land is divided into time zones where the rich and powerful stay in the upper echelons in comfort and the poor struggle to sustain their life in ghetto like time zones.

The protagonist played by Justin Timberlake lives in a ghetto with her mother. He is 27 and his mother is in her 25th anniversary of turning 25. They literally live minute to minute. His life turns upside down one day when a man arrives in the ghetto with over 100 years on his clock. What follows form the core of the movie.

The movie alludes to the current situation in our world economy. The economic powerhouses built on top of debt or paper money which has no intrinsic value. Everything driven by the greed of a few powerful corporations. Humanity treated secondary to profit. I could really connect to the movie in its allegory, %with the occupywallstreet protests and debates on 99% taking place in the USA.

Justin Timberlake is good as the hero. Other actors were pretty decent. Amanda Seinfried is stunning and played a good part as the rich, rebellious girl.

The styling of the movie is good. Realistic future blended with a retro style. Absence of cell phones is the main thing I notice. Could be deliberate. The screenplay tends to get generic and move away from the powerful underlying thought in the thread. Will not bore you for sure. Direction is good. BGM and camera work are pretty standard and engaging enough. Visually, the movie does not offer any excesses and relies on the normal, realistic setting.

At the end of the day, you do get the feeling that the movie could have offered a lot more with the kind of thread it has. But it does entertain you and is a good watch.

TL;DR: In Time is a good scifi thriller with a powerful allegory relevant to our times.

Rating: Good

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