Movies / Movie Reviews

In Time Is No Gattaca

By Hervé St-Louis
October 31, 2011 - 07:46

28-year-old Will Sallas gets extra time when a rich man worth several years gives him all of his fortune in time, allowing Sallas to challenge the society that allowed his mother to die because she lacked 30 minutes to pay for a bus fair. In a world where time is the currency of choice and where people cease to live age after they turn 25-years-old, extra time is everything and forces quickly conspire to take away the time Sallas obtained.

I like the concept of a world where time is everything and is tied to people’s lives completely. The fate of Sallas’ mother (Olivia Wilde) quickly in the film shows what happens when people live minutes to minutes, barely surviving. Of course this film is a total allegory for how many people live from paycheques to paycheques, barely surviving and a criticism of the current plutonomy paradigm introduced a few years ago where all of the economy, the generation of wealth and consumerism is dedicated to upper class only. Given the recent #Occupy movement and the criticism of the financial bailouts of banks and insurance companies out of taxpayers’ money, this film should have done better to highlight a current malaise in the economic system and how people cope with it. It doesn’t.



I found, after much reflection that this film reminded me of Gattaca but far worse and not as polished. Gattaca was about genomics and how enhancing genetic capabilities of individual could lead to discrimination of non-enhanced people. Vincent Anton, played by Ethan Hawke is a man born the old fashion way that tries to circumvent the system and achieve his goal of becoming an astronaut. The premise of both science fiction films is similar in that they are about men born in lower-classes trying to change the system and move up the food chain. But whereas Anton used cunning and deceit to fake his way, Sallas (Justin Timberlake)  just used a gun and violence to change the system. Anton was more preoccupied with his own life and goals, while Sallas wanted to become the next Robin Hood.



Gattaca was smart and had Anton think of every single detail about how to change his life for the better, even if that included murder. It also had powerful messages about self worth and beating the odds when one’s deck of card is not the best. Some memorable moments are the swim Anton has with his brother, the genetically enhance police officer who investigates Anton’s fake identity. In that scene Anton beats his brother in a long-winded swim and even brings him back to shore in the end. When asked how he could have achieved that with a bad heart, Anton replies that he never saved energy to return to shore and just gave in all his best at the time. There was no similar great moment in In Time where the protagonist inspired viewers to do more and beat the system, outside of using tons of time to buy his way to a good life, or resort to kidnapping and burglary when his time ran out.



The movie tries to justify Sallas’ actions against the system and show that he isn’t really a bad guy, when he gives time to the cop that chases him (Cillian Murphy). Murphy is probably the best actor of the cast here and as one would expect steals most of the scenes he’s in. Timberlake’s part in the film like it was scripted to transform him into an action here/leading man in Hollywood. It felt like this movie, after his performance in the Social Network was a springboard to attempt some of the transformation from the world of music to the world of acting that has been performed for other musicians like Eminem Mark Walberg in the past. I’m not sure this movie will do that for Timberlake. There was not character or emotion in the Sallas he played. All he did was played his lines and play his part without adding more to the mix. He’s a boring action leading man.



The greatest failure of the movie is how the whole notion of the biometrics that stopped people’s bodies from functioning when they ran out of time was never challenged. It also didn’t explain why the rich did not just step out of that rule with a loophole that would allow them to stop aging while not needing to keep a real time reserve. I’d expect in such a world that the first thing you’d do if you’re on top, is figure out how to cheat the system so you never run out of time, even accidentally. The second failure of the movie was to not explain if all humans had adhered to this system? Was there a colony or even whole parts of the world, like Africa where this system was not in place and where people did not rely on time to live? Were there even people that aged normally? Third failure of the film is not dwelling enough in how the system came to be and setting up the whole mythology around it. The concept of the time zones was interesting, but little was done to show how people lived in the middle time zones. There is enough material in the film’s premise for a prequel and a sequel, but as the story was presented, it probably means the film will fail at the box office.

The cinematography wasn’t bad at all, but there wasn’t much imagination in set designs. Only the cars seemed different. The fact that people still laboured in factories was weird too. I enjoyed the viewing, initially, but after a good reflection, it turns out that this film, to me did not reach its potential and was the type of science fiction epic made for the crowd that likes Twilight instead of real science fiction.

Rating: 6 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12