In Time (2011)
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Sci-Fi, Action
Movie review written by: Diosette Polinne Fabularum
In Time (2011)
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Sci-Fi, Action
Tick, tock. Time is running out, especially to those of low social classes. To prevent the
disruption of the system and to stop the people from turning into the desire-driven horde, it is the clock
that keeps things stable. You can choose to simply go about your life, or maybe prolong it or even
become an immortal?
Set in a futuristic dystopian theme, “In Time” is a movie where time is an essential part of
people’s lives. People are grouped depending on their social classes by different districts and time
zones. The protagonist, Will Salas (played by Justin Timberlake) is a 28-year-old whose clock started, just
like everyone else in the film, when he turned 25. He and his mom, Rachel (played by Olivia Wilde) live
in the ghettos of Dayton, an industrial-looking time zone where people are having a hard time scraping
off time. He has managed to collect a few years at his age, however, the cost of living in the ghetto only
went up day by day. While Salas was out drinking with his friend, there he met Henry Hamilton, a
wealthy man who purposely flashed his eye-catching time in the bar. Local time thugs suddenly
appeared and wanted the wealthy man’s time for themselves. Rather than retreating like his friend
Borel told him to do, he waited for an opportunity to save the rich stranger. However, saving the life of
the man was all for naught since he was planning to die after living for so many years already. The
stranger decides to give all of his time to Will while allowing some remaining time on him to run out
while sitting on a bridge. The protagonist then heads to the wealthiest time zone, The “New
Greenwich”. After winning a thousand worth of time in the casino he then meets Sylvia (played by
Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of Philippe Weis, an extremely wealthy and powerful personality in the
district who has been manipulating the poor by imposing high-interest time loans with each passing day.
Mr. Weis was a believer of “Darwinian capitalism” (or much commonly known as “Social Darwinism”, a
theory which also supports the concept of capitalism. It is all about competition, adaptation, variation,
overproduction, and speciation.), he has millions of years stored, enough to make him immortal.
However, his daughter Sylvia does not like the thought of living in the same setting for a long time. She
thinks that there is more to life than the favored existence she knows. She is interested in Salas’ wild
ideas of changing the unfair system which only favors the wealthy over the poor and allows a lot of
people to die just to achieve “immortality”. After taking Sylvia as a hostage when the timekeeper was
close to restraining him, it did not take too long when Sylvia agreed to Will’s propositions and it slowly
turned into their mutual crusade. They start robbing banks and providing the stolen time to the poor
that began to cripple the system and the down-and-out.
