Justin Timberlake. Amanda Seyfried. Time travel. Romance. A perfectly unpredictable movie.
Released in theaters in October 2011 and recently available on DVD, In Time, a dystopian, science-fiction style thriller combines action, romance, and special effects to form a spectacular film filled with twists, turns, and cameos, including Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki, House’s Olivia Wilde and Mad Men’s Vincent Kartheiser. All the characters involve the viewers, and, as the story unwinds, develop into realistic and engaging personas.
The movie opens with a deep, compelling Justin Timberlake voice-over. Meant to introduce the characteristics of the dystopia which the characters occupy, it sets a clear and interesting premise, relating the phrase “buying time” to a world in which one actually does have to buy more time alive with money. In the first real scene of the movie, characters ask each other for payment for different things including money, coffee, etc., and the prices and transactions are all carried on in minutes and seconds, as if it were dollars and cents. As Timberlake says, “in this world, the rich can live forever.”
Set on a such a unique premise, however, it would seem that the movie could only devolve, as most modern action flicks usually do. Unlike other, more shallow films, though, this movie maintains its high intellect and spontaneous plot twists throughout the two hours. Captivating everyone from the Justin Bieber-enamored preteen to the middle-aged father, this self-proclaimed “sexy” movie is definitely worth renting.
