In Time

Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake in In Time

Story: In this not so distant future, time  is the universal currency. When you ran out of time, you ceased to exist. The monetary unit changed but society didn't. The upper class have 100 years and keep on accumulating more that makes them almost immortal while the poor has only 25 years and forced to beg, borrow, steal to make it through the day. Will Salas is one of the unlikely ones. Waking up every morning with 23 hours left on his literal body clock to work and so he will live to see the next day. Will's fortune took a different turn when a wealthy stranger ends up dead and finds himself 100 years richer.

My thoughts: This gives us a grim idea of a future. It actually reminds me of credit cards or better example is money transactions done through SMS services but with your own life at stake. This movie will make you learn how to value time. A professor of mine once said that we are living liminal lives. How are you going to spend it. That is why Carpe Diem has been my motto ever since I first heard it in another movie, Dead Poets' Society. It is Latin for "Seize The Day" meaning living your life to the fullest. It is maximizing your life as if you were living your last.

This kind of society is not perfect. But no society has ever been perfect. The American Dream does not exist anymore for those who want to migrate or already migrated. China and Russia tried to build an utopian society but failed because there is still corruption. Remember the story "Animal Farm"? The animals overthrown their human oppressors which was masterminded by the pigs but the pigs became the next oppressors. This is actually true when socialist educator Paolo Freire said that when you overthrow the oppressors to change the society but when they are overthrown, there is always a tendency that the oppressed will turn oppressor. Karl Marx may have an ideal society but human nature always been what Charles Darwin sees our society: The strong will survive, the weak shall fall.

As for the movie, Justin Timberlake is having a lot of movie breaks recently. After his supporting role in the movie adaptation, The Social Network, he became also had a wonderful performance in romantic comedy, Friends With Benefits and now in this sci-fi action. Since then, Justin Timberlake is becoming multitalented following the footsteps of Will Smith who was also a performer like him.

Amanda Seyfried is also a revelation. She proved she can also do action movies. This is also a movie debut from a couple of TV stars. Johnny Galecki(The Big Bang Theory) leaves his dorky glasses and Matt Bomer cuts off his "White Collar" temporarily for the supporting role. This may also be a big break for them in movie career. The movie will not only entertain you but also stimulate your thinking cap which is also suits me.

Opens today in cinemas nationwide from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

THE TIMEKEEPERS AND MINUTEMEN OF “IN TIME”

Cillian Murphy as Timekeeper Leon

It’s a race against time for two young fugitives in a society where time is the currency and there is never enough of it in the philosophical action thriller “In Time.” Starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried with Olivia Wilde, Cillian Murphy and Alex Pettyfer, “In Time” clocks in a world where which people stop aging at 25. From that point onward they have to buy, borrow or steal time in order to stay alive. Every second counts.  For the poor like Timberlake’s Will Salas, life is a constant struggle for survival, while the wealthy have enough time to live forever.

Alex Pettyfer as the Head Minuteman

Falsely accused of murder and on the run, Will (Timberlake) meets the rich and beautiful Sylvia (Seyfried). Together the charismatic pair is trying to bring down the corrupt system. The world created by director Andrew Niccol in “In Time” is corrupt and unjust. For the poor it is a daily battle to acquire enough time to stay alive. The rich on the other hand have centuries and can potentially live forever. There is a yawning gap between the haves and have-nots.

            Sylvia and Will are running for their lives – not just to find enough time to make it through another day, but from the Timekeepers out to capture the fugitive duo.  “Timekeepers keep the system running; they actually keep time,” says Niccol.  “And our principal antagonist, Timekeeper Leon, is not really a villain. He is just a bureaucrat, an authority figure who has allegiance to no one, rich or poor.  His only allegiance is to minutes and seconds. He believes (or has to believe) that you are either working for the system, or you need to be eliminated.”

            For the role of the Timekeeper Leon the filmmakers cast another “old soul,” Cillian Murphy. Murphy acknowledges the circumstances of his character – “he’s a cop charged with keeping this system going” – but the actor finds the deeper layers of Leon more compelling to play:  “What’s great about the character is that he is a contradiction, because he’s actually from that same ghetto where Will lives.  Deep down, he knows that it’s a corrupt system, and yet he’s decided to accept that and pursue his goal of keeping time.  He’s a very kinetic and focused character, and for him it’s just about constantly moving forward.  I think he’s suppressed all of his past. What I liked about the writing is that Will and Leon, they’re the flip side of each other.  It’s just different paths having been taken.  This is the path he’s chosen, and he suppresses all of the misgivings and issues he has with this system.  He’s tried to leave them behind over the course of his life.” 

            As with the classic archetypal chase – the hunter and the hunted – so beautifully realized in, for example, The Fugitive, a bond forms as the chase quickens.  Murphy adds, “Not only does Leon realize he’s from the same side of the tracks as Will, but there is a sense of history; Leon knew Will’s father.  I think over the course of the story, they gain a respect for each other.”   

            Part of the menace of Dayton, apart from the possibility of timing out should one not amass a day’s wages, is the presence of Minute Men, who are thieves out to steal time.  Alex Pettyfer portrays Fortis, the leader of the Minute Men – a refined 75-year-old psychopath (who of course looks 25).  “Because of the character’s age, he’s quite articulate,” says Niccol.  “He has more sophisticated taste in clothing than a younger man would have.  That makes him seem different from the younger characters.”

            Pettyfer offers, “Fortis is a bruiser, though not without a certain elegance.  And he’s just a complete psycho, and crazy-hungry for time.  I think the scariest thing about him is that he feels he has nothing to lose.  He just doesn’t care.  He’s just now gone completely insane and is on a rampage for more time.”

            The actor enjoyed his trip to the dark side, finding it a liberating experience:  “You can’t do everything you want playing a villain, but you have room to create.  And I think that’s the most attractive thing about playing a character like Fortis; it’s that you can build so many layers with him.”

            Riveting action thriller “In Time” opens October 28 in cinemas from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE “IN TIME” FOR GRIPPING ACTION

Multi-talented Justin Timberlake debuts in his starring role as Will Salas in the gripping action-thriller “In Time” opposite Amanda Seyfried.  Under the direction of genre-bender director Niccol Andrew whose works include “Gattaca” that introduced the unthinkable in genetic engineering and “The Truman Show” that sparked today’s reality shows, “In Time” advances to a near future where time is literally at arm’s reach. 

            Justin Timberlake’s Will Salas struggles every second of every day and is  is constantly on the run, fighting to get more time. While people stop ageing at the age of 25 in the movie,  life beyond that point is precarious, at least for the poor like Will and his mother, Rachel (played by Olivia Wilde who looks the same age as her son). They are only given a year’s grace, after 25, that it is a battle for survival which means that every moment is precious.

The rich at the other end of the spectrum have excessive amounts of time and they are effectively immortal. They have a decadently indulgent lifestyle where little is achieved because there is no sense of urgency.  It’s an unjust society implemented as a way of stemming over population. 

When Will ‘inherits’ a lot of time from a wealthy man who wants to give it all away., he crosses all borders to get the zone where the rich lives.  He then  meets Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), a beautiful but bored and over-protected heiress in the rich zone and takes her hostage.  Together on the run, Will and Sylvia try to put an end to the corruption and redistribute time.   

Being a longtime fan of action thrillers, Timberlake immediately jumped at the chance to play the ‘old soul’ Will.  “When I was a kid, some of my favorite movies were action pieces like First Blood, The Fugitive, and Die Hard,” says Timberlake. “The one thing I loved about those specific movies was that the protagonists were everyday people placed into extraordinary circumstances and doing extraordinary things.”

Timberlake adds, “Will’s heroics are triggered by an easily relatable factor.  Will has grown up with essentially nothing. He wakes up every day and goes to work to stay alive.  Through a series of events, he decides that he’s not going to take it anymore, and takes it upon himself to try and change the way things work in this world.” 

“Will grows up in Dayton, which is somewhat of a ghetto.  It’s kind of ironic that the word ‘day’ is in its name, because most of the citizens only walk around with a day to live.  So the day-to-day life in Dayton is quick.  People don’t have time to walk slowly, so they run, almost all of the time, to where they are going, and they’re constantly eating and drinking on the run.  They don’t have time to spare or to waste.  Everything’s frenetic and alive, in a kind of dangerous yet beautiful way.  When your back is up against the wall and you don’t have a choice, you make revisions and you live your life the way that it has to be, to survive.”

Ironically, having had an unconventional childhood due to his early success in the music industry, Timberlake has come of age and is much comfortable as he was than his younger years. ““I am happy about getting older. I like myself much more at 30 than I did when I was 25. You accept things more and you become more patient. I have been really lucky; I have made the most of my luck and I am happy about that.  I think the idea of immortality is actually frightening to me especially because I look back at my younger days as a lot of visual mishaps. I don’t know what I would do if I possessed immortality.  It’s definitely a mind trip getting into the idea that it could exist as we see it in the film. My character Will is always moving, always running and it’s mostly because he literally lives day to day.  I think I’ve probably spent time moving at a fast pace, so I identify with that.”

“In Time” opens October 28 in theaters from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.

TIMBERLAKE AND SEYFRIED IN FUTURISTIC ACTION THRILLER “IN TIME”

Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried in "In Time"

Posing an opportune theme on looking and staying young, the futuristic action thriller “In Time” is set in a not-too-distant future when scientists have created a world where people stop aging at 25. The bad news though is that rather than being immortal everyone is genetically engineered with a body clock that gives them just one more year to live. Unless, that is, they can earn, buy, cheat or steal their way to some extra time.

            “In Time” is a film by Andrew Niccol which stars music artist turned actor Justin Timberlake opposite the multi-faceted actress Amanda Seyfried.  In the movie, Timberlake is Will Salas who is falsely accused of murder.  Will figures out a way with the help of a wealthy hostage Sylvia Weis (Seyfried) to bring down the system where time is money and where only the rich can live forever.  

            “In Time” is written and directed by New Zealand-born Andrew Niccol, whose previous credits include the screenplay and direction for “The Truman Show” and “Gattaca.”  “Gattaca” was ahead of the cinematic curve in its creative use of CGI effects and in envisaging a future world where genetics have become a tool of social engineering. “The Truman Show,” meanwhile, was uncannily prescient about the voyeuristic reality programming that has changed the face of television over the last decade. Not surprisingly then, there’s seemingly a lot more to “In Time” than guns and car chases, even if Niccol insists that the film is first and foremost an action thriller with “a ticking clock in every scene.” “But, yes, it was definitely the theme of immortality, the desire to live forever, that sparked my interest,” the director concedes, adding with a smile that it’s no coincidence that “In Time” was shot in Los Angeles. “Los Angeles is the capital of staying young forever,” he explains.

“At the center of the story,” Niccol adds, “is this idea that in the future everyone is engineered to have a body clock that counts down the time they have left. And this invention is the death of all other inventions. So I think the film does comment a little bit on our seeming desire to stay young forever and what it would mean if we could do that,  but our psychology may not be able to keep up with our biology.”

Amanda Seyfried, who recently starred in “Red Riding Hood” and “Mamma Mia” meanwhile, who clocks in at a spot-on 25 (inside and out), says that “In Time” is a completely original idea. The actress explains, “And such an amazing and intense concept – this thought that we may one day be able to switch off the gene for aging – but Andrew makes it seem entirely plausible and the characters feel completely real. I think there are very few writers who can do that: write a script with this extraordinary premise and create an imagined world that you absolutely believe in.”

Justin Timberlake says it was a similar response to Niccol’s script that made him eager to jump on board. “When I first read the script I just got totally caught up in the characters and the story. Will is basically an anti-hero, an ordinary guy who’s forced to become a hero and take on these incredible challenges, and that aspect of it really appealed to me: I wanted him to come from a real place and be street smart but not to have extraordinary abilities.  The film might be thought-provoking and give you something to talk about after you leave the cinema, but while you are watching it, the movie stays a couple of steps ahead of you the whole time and doesn’t really give you a chance to catch your breath,” Timberlake says.  

“In Time” opens very soon in October from 20^th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.