Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
In the not-too-distant future, the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live forever, while the rest struggle to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man who suddenly comes into a fortune of time finds himself on the run from a corrupt police force known as the "time keepers".
In Time features a genuinely inventive high-concept premise — time as literal currency in a dystopian society — that earns a strong Novelty score for its singular, well-developed metaphor about wealth inequality. The plot leverages this concept reasonably well but grows increasingly formulaic as it devolves into a standard on-the-run thriller, with logic gaps and underdeveloped world-building holding it back. Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried are serviceable but lack chemistry and depth, with performances that feel flat against the material's potential. Cillian Murphy as the time-keeper antagonist is a highlight. Cinematography is competent and slick but unremarkable. The ending is rushed and unsatisfying, resolving the systemic injustice in a pat, unconvincing way that undercuts the film's thematic ambitions.