In Time

A version of this review appeared in The Age, October 27, 2011.

The latest preachy science-fiction parable from writer-director Andrew Niccoll takes place in a parallel universe where, literally, time is money: where the upper-class hoard centuries and the poor live from one day to the next. Thanks to genetic engineering, everybody is theoretically immortal – but death is instantaneous whenever your time happens to run out.

Justin Timberlake stars as Will Salas, a working stiff who unexpectedly receives the gift of an extra hundred years, freeing him to cross out of his “time zone” and hook up with spoilt heiress Sylvia Weis (a nearly unrecognisable Amanda Seyfried, with raccoon eyes and bobbed red hair). Vaguely reminiscent of The Great Gatsby, these early glimpses of high society are the most successful part of the film, which slides downhill fast once Will and Sylvia find themselves on the lam together, pursued by assorted gangsters and by the implacable Timekeeper (Cillain Murphy, not at his best).

The retro production design has some appeal, and as a statement about social inequality In Time is unusually pointed and possibly even sincere. But Niccoll is such a laborious filmmaker that it hardly matters.  With no talent for either action or character, he's content to repeat his basic premise over and over, subjecting us to countless corny puns from “Got a moment?” to “I'm gonna clean your clock.”

There are a few other odd, undeveloped notions.  Nobody in this universe looks older than twenty-five – which allows Niccoll to cast the youthfully attractive Olivia Wilde as Timberlake's mother, to briefly provocative effect.  Timberlake himself adapts to circumstances as smoothly as usual, and we can look forward to seeing him play an sci-fi everyman in other, better films.