Reviewing: In Time

Awhile ago, I decided I would begin reviewing books and movies, mostly because it's a good way to preview them for free. Also, I like those art forms. What could be wrong with that? I don't care if anyone agrees with me, really, and you have to take other people's opinions with a grain of salt, anyway.

Then I forgot to do it because really, with all of the reading I do for my career, I don't have time to read for pleasure. I sold about 10 big boxes of books over the summer and still have three book cases full, and have since started books online. And the only book I have finished so far has been one about Marilyn Monroe.

Movies have become much easier, if I haven't already watched them and if I am in a theatre. If at home, they are not easy to concentrate on.

Tonite, I went to see In Time for a friend's birthday.

The movie itself is quite the statement on consumerism, capitalism and socialism. Quite apropos for the Occupy "your situation here" movement currently happening across Canada and the United States.

It's an interesting idea. The premise is that humans have a biological clock that begins to run out when you turn 25 - much like a woman's biological clock supposedly starts ticking and her little egg-lets want to become kid-lets, not scrambled little omelets (if you are a woman, you will never again have a menstrual cycle without thinking of an omelet, nor will you ever want to eat an omelet again).

Back to the movie...

People work for, share, and steal time in order to prolong their lives. It's their currency; they pay bills and buy whatever they need with time. Are the time banks the enemy? Or is time itself their worst enemy?  Time being an enemy and their constant race against the clock is a great statement about how much people will do to stay young. Initially, the movie seems escapist but it is layered, if you want to look that deep.

*spoiler alert*

Those with little time live day to day, literally. Those with much of it horde it in great quantities, are 'immortal' (their clocks don't run out) and can buy anything / do anything. The male protagonist acquires an exorbitant amount of time very quickly and uses it up very rapidly, spreading around the wealth, so to speak.

... more great statements, much like the economically rich of our world are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the the newly rich often throw around their money because they are not used to having it and want to buy everything they ever wanted. The rich are used to having it so do not flaunt it, the poor have no concept of substantial wealth and so crave it.

We regular people sit and occupy the theatres, watching this movie. Some Occupy streets already, fighting back against various injustices of capitalism, as In Time, they occupy the banks on the streets, stealing time to fight back.

How far does society have to push us into absurdity before people fight back?

Is this movie commenting on society? Maybe. Maybe it's just perspective considering the news, lately. Movies take awhile to make. Is this coincidence? Or is this a Wag The Dog situation? Conspiracy theory alert!

Maybe producers think it's time we just have a cute little romp nowadays so we can forget all the seriousness of this modern age, especially since most of us go to the movies to watch escapist fiction these days. :D

There are plenty of 'groaner' lines, like the bullies going to 'clean [people's] clocks,' 'got a minute?', etc. The female protagonist's eyeballs were just killing me. I couldn't focus on anything else on the screen except her bad hair and big saucer eyeballs, made even worse by the raccoon make-up. She also performed major running scenes across pavement, rooftops and dark alleys, and at least one jumping-out-of-a-second-storey-building-and-landing-on-a-car scene in stilettos. That takes serious skill. Only the male protagonist being half-naked could help that situation and that didn't happen very often.

AND everyone allows their time run down to a couple of hours without being in a state of panic. If you knew you had two hours left to live and could change that by doing something productive, wouldn't you go out and do whatever productive thing it was in order to get more time? I wouldn't be hanging out on a bus, or going for a run, or looking down my nose at hookers. A girl's gotta do what she can to survive! She's gonna be alive in two hours - and you are obviously dead. I'm not saying to go be a hooker, all I'm saying is that don't let yourself run down to two hours - what if you got stuck in traffic?

The acting wasn't great, The one major crying scene of the male protagonist started out alright but felt forced within seconds. I can't handle bad acting - it makes me want to fast-forward even the few seconds that I have to endure it. For the love of God, if you are being paid millions, at least take an acting lesson, or draw upon something in your life to round up an emotion or two. Please.

Meh, it's alright.

3 / 5