Futuristic movie In Time stars Justin Timberlake

Film: In Time

Rating: PG-13

By Adria DeLaune

In Time presents itself as a time-pressed romp through the future where human beings are engineered to live until age 25, at which point life and death are determined by the amount of time left on their neon green forearm displays.  Just like our version of currency, time can be spent and earned.  Citizens find themselves having to work, borrow, steal or inherit time.  “Time zones” serve as barriers between the poor, the middle class and the wealthy.  Crossing into a different time zone requires payment of a great deal of time, a commodity most don’t have.

Justin Timberlake’s Will Salas is the central character in the film.  Will comes from a working class family but through happenstance, meets a very wealthy man from the uppermost time zone who donates a century of time to Will as repayment for saving his life.

Will’s incredible stroke of luck takes him from the ghetto to the high life, as he gambles on his time and comes up big, capturing both the time and the daughter of wealthy time mogul Phillipe Weis.  Sylvia, the daughter (played by Amanda Seyfried) becomes smitten with Will’s rogue ways and together they attempt escape after escape from the Timekeepers, the police system of this futuristic world.

Just a warning to the NSync fans of the world, if you have hopes of seeing Justin in all of his teen pop and SexyBack glory, you can kiss those dreams Bye Bye Bye.  Timberlake is about as gritty as he gets in this film, slumming it for most of them film and later looking disheveled as he is chased through several time zones.

If you are a sci-fi fanatic, you will either love or hate the film.  The premise is terrific and many parts of the movie are unpredictable and startling.  Others, however, are droll and anti-climactic.  You may walk away feeling like you have to watch the movie again to “get it.”  Trust me, you don’t.  It is what it is.  It’s a good way to kill a couple hours.

For a movie that had such massive earning potential at the box office, In Time fell quite a bit short of the studio’s hopes.  That doesn’t mean that it will fall as flat as a rental.

The verdict: Rent it.  Just don’t expect too much from your time with the film.