movie reviews in time

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A review of “in time”: story explained and analysis.

This post includes a brief plot summary, an analysis and an explanation about the ending of the 2011 film “In Time”. Beware of spoilers.

Imagine a world where time is the ultimate currency, and the wealthy can live forever while the poor struggle to survive from day to day. In the 2011 film ‘In Time,’ director Andrew Niccol paints a dystopian picture where time literally means money. Starring Justin Timberlake as Will Salas and Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia Weis.

The plot of “In Time” presents a thought-provoking premise that challenges the audience to reflect on the value of time and social inequalities.

Set in a dystopian future, “In Time” presents a world where people are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. However, this “blessing” comes with a caveat: after that, people have to pay to continue to live. As a result, the poor have to struggle harder to stay alive than the rich.

The protagonist of this story is Will Salas, a young man who lives in Dayton, a poor area. However, everything changes when he saves the life of a complete stranger. That same man happened to have a lot of time on his hands, literally. And he gifts all of it to Will as a token of appreciation.

Sadly for Will, his new-found fortune also came with a great loss: his mother “ran out of time” before he could give her the good news. Now, as a wealthy man, Will leaves Dayton and swears revenge on the ultra-rich, the inhabitants of New Greenwich.

At his new “place”, Will meets Philippe Weis, a man who made most of his fortune “lending time” to people. Will beats Philippe at a poker game. Winning more time was definitely a very satisfying experience for Will, but at the moment, all his eyes are on Sylvia Weis, Philippe’s daughter.

Just when he thought his life had turned around, a bunch of timekeepers stormed into Philippe’s party and captured Will. Leon, a senior officer, believes that Will is a time thief and therefore confiscates all his time. Out of fear, Will kidnaps Sylvia. During the escape, Will and Sylvia encounter real “time thieves”. Since Will didn’t have much time on him, they took most of Sylvia’s.

Later on, Sylvia joins Will in his fight to help the poor. What is the one thing that these people don’t have? Time. Therefore, Sylvia and Will start robbing Philippe’s time-lending facilities and giving the time to those in need. However, there is a bigger heist on their horizon: a case containing one million years located at Philippe’s vault.

The ending of “In Time” shows Will and Sylvia leaving Philippe’s building and successfully distributing the time among the people in Dayton. Eventually, Leon stops chasing the couple because he runs out of time. From that point on, Will and Sylvia continue to join efforts to rob larger banks and gift the time away.

Will Salas and Sylvia Weis represent the disparities between the wealthy and the poor. Each character provides insights about the complexities of social stratification.

The protagonist of “In Time”, Will Salas, is a man driven by his desire to avenge his mother’s death. Her passing is a product of the social inequalities between the rich and the poor. As a part of his grieving process, Will decided to take action against the status quo of this time-based currency society.

While Will represents the struggling working class, Sylvia Weis is the complete opposite. She belongs to the elites, who are wealthy enough to live a carefree life and not worry about “time”. Her encounter with Will made her aware of the harsh reality of the time disparity between the rich and the poor. As a result, she decides to join Will in his fight, and she even defies her own father in the process.

Side note: Although Will and Sylvia get the most screen time in the film, Leon is probably one of the puzzling characters in “In Time”.

When it comes to social status, Leon is not privileged like Philippe Weis, but he’s doing better than many of the inhabitants of Dayton. However, this timekeeper insists on hunting down Will and Sylvia to maintain the existing social order when his actions don’t really benefit him at all. Quite the contrary, Leon’s actions only reinforce the current oppressive system.

Despite being set in a dystopian future, “In Time” shares a lot of parallels with our current contemporary society, which deserves its own analysis.

A time-based economy has a lot of social implications. If everything is paid with “time”, then the wealthy will become almost immortal, while the poor have their lives on the line all the time. An underprivileged individual in this society cannot afford to skip a single day of work, as it has life-and-death consequences.

The world of “In Time” serves as a metaphor for real-world economic disparities. Will Salas would never be able to earn his way out of Dayton. It’s literally too expensive. The toll fees between areas are just one of many barriers that keep people in their respective areas, or, in other words, their social status.

However, the social elevator of “In Time” is not the only one that is broken, the one from our current society is too. There is a widening gap between the rich and poor, which is making it harder and harder for individuals to climb up the social ladder.

Having said that, “In Time” provides a harsh critique of unregulated capitalism and the pursuit of wealth. For instance, Philippe Weis is a man who made his fortune out of others’ desperation. His time-lending facilities are lending time to people who don’t have it. And even worse, they will never be able to repay what they owe, making them stay in a permanent cycle of debt.

Final Thoughts

“In Time” is an intriguing tale that explores in an original manner the concept of time as currency. Due to its interesting premise and exciting fast pace, the film keeps the audience on their toes, curious about what’s going to happen next.

Although the film had a very strong premise, the ending of “In Time” didn’t quite deliver. Also, the performance of the leading man, Justin Timberlake, was subpar. Had they chosen a more seasoned or talented actor, the character of Will Salas would’ve been much more memorable.

As mentioned before, the film’s ending doesn’t quite live up to its strong start. “In Time” does a great job at highlighting the differences between the rich and poor but offers a terrible solution to the problem. The key to societal inequality is not to rob the rich but to promote a system that fosters social mobility.

Overall, “In Time” is a compelling watch, despite its minor shortcomings. Andrew Niccol’s storytelling style is visually engaging and reminds the viewers of the importance of creating a society where opportunities are available to all, regardless of their social status.

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Movie Review | 'In Time'

Die Young, Stay Pretty, and Watch Your Clock

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By Manohla Dargis

Oct. 27, 2011

The tick tick tock of the mortal clock gives the science-fiction thriller “In Time” its slick, sweet premise. Set in a near or far future in a segregated city that resembles the separated, weirdly depopulated neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles (where it was shot), the movie imagines a world in which everyone stops aging at 25. (Just like in Hollywood!) On that birthday a glowing green digital clock on everyone’s left forearm starts running, giving them just 365 days to go and then 364, 363, 362. When the days run out, the clock stops for good.

In this futureworld in which time is literally money — everything, including food, shelter and wages, is valued in minutes, hours, years, decades — it’s possible to slow the escaping hourglass sand by buying more time, as the rich do. The poor, of course, are slaves to time: many die young and stay pretty, and are preyed on by time bandits called Minute Men, who clean clocks at gunpoint.

In the ghetto, an industrial-looking time zone called Dayton where Will (Justin Timberlake) lives, most people only scrape together a few extra hours. At 28, he has managed to put three additional years on his life, but the cost of breathing keeps going up. What set him back an hour yesterday may take two hours off his life tomorrow.

It’s a resonant, er, timely premise, something that Philip K. Dick might have typed up at the height of his frenzied paranoia. It’s also in keeping with the same themes about life and its simulations that have been grist for its writer and director, Andrew Niccol. In his 1997 film, “ Gattaca ,” biology is destiny to such a degree that any imperfection, no matter how slight, condemns the DNA-challenged to second-class status. (Its hero, played by Ethan Hawke, “passes” as perfect.) If “Gattaca” also worked as a metaphor for the movie industry, it’s because Mr. Niccol let his story serve his ideas; in “Simone,” though, a leaden, mirthless satire about a superstar who’s a software program, he wielded his ideas like a bludgeon, pounding them in until the film was dead on the screen.

“In Time” is closer to “Gattaca” and plays like something of a self-conscious, often clever amendment to that earlier film. In “Gattaca” the multiracial, multiethnic elect who have been genetically engineered to idealized type effectively function as a master race. “In Time” resurrects the master-slave dialectic and also invokes the Holocaust, specifically in the shots of the dead and poor who lie where they fall. For the most part, Mr. Niccol doesn’t continue down this perilous avenue, though like other filmmakers he can’t resist tricking out his resident storm troopers, a policelike unit known as the Timekeepers, in regulation black and shiny, shiny leather. Despite these nods at that old fascinating fascism, Mr. Niccol appears to be going for something a touch lighter.

The trouble is that romping and lightness don’t come naturally to him. The story opens with Will wishing his mother, Rachel (the young, dewy Olivia Wilde, in an amusing bit of casting), a happy 50th. The two live in an artfully dilapidated apartment with gated windows in Dayton, one of a number of different zones that constitute the new political and geographic order. Will has little sense of the world beyond the ghetto, though he has heard of an almost mythological zone named New Greenwich. He gets a chance to go over that rainbow when a stranger, Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer, from the cable show “White Collar”), transfers a century over to Will, a bequest that brings new life and some familiar genre danger.

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 12 Reviews
Kids Say 44 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Sci-fi thriller has violence, sexuality, language.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Occasional use of words like "s--t," "ass," "damn,&quot

Will and Sylvia hook up pretty quickly; they flirt and go skinny dipping (her nu

Plenty of shootings (some at close range, though there's little blood); one

Adults drink wine, champagne, and hard liquor at social events, a bar, and in pr

Any Positive Content?

At times, Will is a good role model: He's a loving son, a generous man, and

The idea that time is precious is a good message for all, as is the notion that

Occasional use of words like "s--t," "ass," "damn," and "hell," as well as one memorable "f--k" (said as "un-f--king-believable." "God" and "Jesus"-based exclamations are said several times as well.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Will and Sylvia hook up pretty quickly; they flirt and go skinny dipping (her nude bottom is shown under the water) before they even have their first kiss. Later, after their first passionate kiss, they end up staying together and making out. They play strip poker on a bed, and Sylvia is obviously losing -- she's down to her lace bra and panties. There's no actual love scene, though, since the couple is interrupted before they can go all the way (although it's clear they've done so off camera). In other scenes, a prostitute propositions a cop and rich women wear tight, revealing outfits.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Plenty of shootings (some at close range, though there's little blood); one suicide. Most people die when their countdown clock hits zero, and this can happen to anyone -- particularly the poor -- at any time if they can't find someone to give or lend them some extra time until their next time-paying job. The dead are shown peppered throughout the streets; in one heartbreaking scene, two characters miss being reunited by a second, and it's just long enough for one to die in the other's arms. Those who do have more than enough time can still die if someone steals their time or if they're injured beyond repair in an accident, by a gun shot, etc. Most of the characters who die in the movie have their "clocks cleared," although a few are shot.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink wine, champagne, and hard liquor at social events, a bar, and in private. Will's best friend (literally) drinks himself to death by using all of his bonus "time" on alcohol.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

At times, Will is a good role model: He's a loving son, a generous man, and a good friend. His mother is also a sweet and kind woman who gives her son time she can't really spare. The manager of the local mission gives most of his time away to the needier, and even Sylvia grows to understand the plight of the timeless.

Positive Messages

The idea that time is precious is a good message for all, as is the notion that no one should ever die so that someone else can become richer. But the movie's moral is muddied by the main characters' inconsistent behavior. How can they judge who merits the time and who doesn't? Still, despite their dire situation, Will and his mother love each other unconditionally and are always willing to spare some time for each other and those who are even less fortunate.

Parents need to know that this sci-fi adventure features a fair bit of violence, twentysomething sexuality, and heavy themes about social equality and injustice that may not be appropriate for tweens interested in seeing a Justin Timberlake movie. Language includes one "f--k," as well as "s--t," "damn," "ass"; violent scenes feature close-range shootings (mostly bloodless), people dropping dead when their clocks reach zero, and one suicide. Sex is implied rather than shown, but there's a skinny-dipping scene with a glimpse of a nude bottom, as well as strip poker and some skimpy lingerie. There's a Robin Hood-esque theme to the second half of the movie, but it's wrapped around a shallower Bonnie-and-Clyde vibe of "let's have fun robbing from the rich." Despite the movie's mixed messages, one lesson is loud and clear: Don't waste your time. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (12)
Kids say (44)

Based on 12 parent reviews

It was good

What's the story.

Will Salas ( Justin Timberlake ) lives in a futuristic world in which everyone ages until 25 -- and then, the instant they hit that milestone, their internal clock is turned on like a glowing counter on their forearms, and they must work to earn each additional minute, hour, and year of their lives. Will and his mother, Rachel ( Olivia Wilde ), live in Dayton, the "poor" time zone in which everyone lives minute to minute; one night, after Will helps a wealthy man flee the zone's biggest time thief, the mysterious rich fellow explains how the rich are immortal, while the poor die in the streets. He then gives Will 116 years before committing suicide. Left with more time than anyone in his zone, Will flees to the far posher zone of New Greenwich, where businessmen like Philippe Weis ( Vincent Kartheiser ) are so time-rich that their wives wear gloves so as not to flaunt their millennia. Wanted by the head Timekeeper ( Cillian Murphy ), Will narrowly escapes the zone with Philippe's daughter, Sylvia ( Amanda Seyfried ), as his hostage. The two embark on a mission to redistribute time and expose the system's injustice.

Is It Any Good?

The first half of IN TIME is stylish and original and offers just enough action and punny time jokes to be genuinely entertaining without being over the top. Parading an all-star cast of talented actors, led by the always charismatic Timberlake, the movie is by turns a thriller, a treatise on the unfair distribution of wealth, and a Bonnie and Clyd e-meets- Robin Hood caper. Parts are particularly poignant, like a gut-wrenching sequence in which Rachel is running as fast as she can to meet Will before she times out, or when Will sweetly gives his best friend ( Johnny Galecki ) a decade in tribute to their 10 years of friendship.

But once Will and Sylvia hook up to free the time, the movie's many flaws emerge to bog the action down in unanswered questions. Will's dead father's name is brought up several times, but it's never exactly clear why he was such a revolutionary hero. It's also uncertain when or how the time system started -- if it's a genetic alteration introduced in a dystopian future or something created to keep the masses in slave-like conditions. Some of the relationships, especially Sylvia's with her parents, are especially one-dimensional (it's ludicrous that one of the richest men in the world wouldn't give away time for his one and only daughter). Director Andrew Niccol gets points for the movie's fascinating premise and the exciting cast, but he should have done a better job of sustaining the cool concept and tightening up loose ends. This is one of those entertaining-enough sci-fi movies that it's best not to overthink, or else your time will feel wasted.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's sci-fi themes. Why are futuristic storylines so compelling to audiences? Is this vision of the future a positive one or a cautionary tale? Can you think of other movies with futures that seem better to live in than this time-obsessed one?

How do the filmmakers cleverly use "time" to replace wealth in the story? Pick out a few examples of how characters literally mean it when they say "I'm out of time," or "have a minute?"

How is the movie's message of wealth distribution and injustice relevant today?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 28, 2011
On DVD or streaming : January 31, 2012
Cast : Amanda Seyfried , Justin Timberlake , Olivia Wilde
Director : Andrew Niccol
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
Genre : Science Fiction
Run time : 109 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violence, some sexuality and partial nudity, and brief strong language
Last updated : September 10, 2024

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In time: film review.

Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried star in Andrew Niccol's dystopian film, giving new currency to Benjamin Franklin's infamous quote, "Time is Money."

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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It’s refreshing to see a low-tech major studio science fiction film in this day and age, one in which the only physical manifestation of its futuristic setting is a glowing digital clock emblazened on everyone’s lower arm that offers a running tally on how much time they’ve got to live. As novel and absorbing as In Time is in several respects, however, Andrew Niccol ‘s latest conception of an altered but still recognizable future feels undernourished in other ways that are not as salutary, preventing the film from fulfilling its strong inherent promise. The imperiled-lovers-on-the-run action format with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried heading an insanely attractive cast should produce decent mid-range box office totals.

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

October 28, 2011
Justin Timberlake as Will Salas; Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia Weis; Cillian Murphy as Raymond Leon; Vincent Kartheiser as Philippe Weis; Olivia Wilde as Rachel Salas

Home Release Date

January 31, 2012
Andrew Niccol

Distributor

20th Century Fox

Movie Review

We sometimes talk about living on borrowed time. But no one takes the phrase quite so literally as those who live in the rundown Dayton district.

Here, in a world where time really is money—where people stop aging at 25 but start dying then, too, where folks spend minutes for coffee and weeks for a hotel room—the residents of Dayton literally live day to day. Will Salas, ever since his clock started ticking, has never gone a day with more than a day to live: He’s survived the last three years through guile and hard work—pulling extra shifts at the factory and then running home to share his precious minutes with his mother.

But there’s never enough time to do what you want to do, and Will knows that he can’t stay 25 forever. Prices keep rising. His wages keep falling. His time is running out.

Then one night he sees a guy at a bar spending decades like Monopoly minutes. He’s carrying more than a century with him—and carting around that much time in Dayton is like signing your own death warrant. Will rescues the dude from a tough scrape and spirits him away to safety. And while the guy appreciates the gesture, he tells Will that, at the eternally youthful age of 105, he’s ready to pull out the batteries.

“The day comes when you’ve had enough,” he says. “We want to die. We need to.”

Yeah, sure , thinks time-deprived Will, and he drifts off to sleep. But when he wakes, he discovers two curious things: One, his own internal clock has been reset with another 116 years. Two, his new friend is lying dead outside.

So Will’s been given the precious gift of time. Lots of it. But in this crazy, clock-obsessed world, folks like Will aren’t supposed to have extra time on their hands. They’re supposed to live and die like good citizens, so a few rich and powerful people can live for as long as they want. Will’s new cache of time violates the scheme of things—a delicate economic system that’s worked so nicely for … well, quite some time. And it’s not long before time-coveting crooks and time-keeping cops decide to clean Will’s clock, whispering to themselves, We want what’s … hours .

Positive Elements

Maybe we could all use a green, glowing countdown clock on our forearms—something that would tell us how much time we really had. Perhaps if we did, we wouldn’t waste our time like we sometimes do. Will, in some ways, sets a good example for us: He certainly makes the most of the time he’s been given—using every hour, minute and second to its full potential.

And that ethic hasn’t made him stingy, either. He’s generous with his time. We see him give a decade to a friend and an unspecified amount to a little homeless girl. He even gives a couple of hours to a timekeeper who’s pursuing him—allowing the cop to get back to base before he expires. Why? Because Will doesn’t think time should be rationed, that the poor should have days and the rich eons. He believes there’s time enough for all—and he pushes the powers that be to become fairer and more equitable.

(Now in so doing, Will becomes something of a chronological Robin Hood, and naturally that comes with its own set of problems. But while we may take issue with his methods, we can’t fault Will’s heart here.)

Spiritual Elements

For a world so obsessed with time, there’s very little mind paid to the subject of eternity. There’s a sense here that when your clock stops ticking, that’s it: You’ve just stopped ticking. There’s no discussion of an afterlife, no ruminations on God and whether He would’ve approved of time being used and abused in this way.

And yet faith is not entirely absent. There’s a mission house in Dayton that doles out time instead of food. The place is headed by an apparent priest (in the credits he’s called Levi) who bears a religious symbol that ever so slightly resembles a Christian cross. Will sneaks up on Levi at one juncture with a mask on, and Levi assumes that he’s being robbed:

“I don’t have much,” Levi says. “Everything I have I give away.”

“I know,” Will says, and loads up Levi’s counter with his own minutes.

One more spiritually themed note: The world’s time-based economic system is often characterized as fair, in a strictly survival-of-the-fittest sort of way. And the code needed to access a safe holding lots and lots of time is, unsurprisingly, Charles Darwin’s birth date.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Will hooks up with a girl named Sylvia, daughter of a fabulously wealthy time magnate. The two skinny-dip in the ocean (we see a glimpse of Sylvia’s backside) and later play strip poker in a hotel room (Sylvia, dressed in only her underwear, is clearly losing when they pause to make out on the bed). The pair also smooches passionately a few times.

Women wear formfitting, cleavage-revealing clothing. A prostitute propositions a timekeeper, offering him 10 minutes of her time if he gives her an hour. Will makes a crude sexual allusion to a waitress.

Violent Content

In Time gives us a world in which people die when their countdown clocks hit 0. These genetically predetermined deaths aren’t particularly lingering: Victims look as if they were stricken by a sudden heart attack—a gasp, a grimace and they’re gone. We see a handful of folks go this way—one after his time’s been forcibly taken from him, another after losing a “fight” in which the contestants vie for each other’s allotments. A man gives away all of his time, killing himself.

The deceased get little notice, interestingly. And their bodies are sometimes left out in the open like old candy wrappers.

There are other ways to die of course. Several folks carry and use guns. One man is shot in the back of the head. Three others are gunned down in rapid succession and then laid out on a sidewalk like logs. Another takes a bullet to the arm and survives. People get punched, kicked and slammed into bathroom stall doors. Will and Sylvia get into a serious (though seriously fake-looking) car accident.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word, three s-words and a smattering of other profanities, most prominently “d‑‑n” and “h‑‑‑.” God’s name is misused a half-dozen times (once with “d‑‑n”), and Jesus’ name is abused once.

Drug & Alcohol Content

We’ve always heard that drinking heavily can take years off your life, and in this movie that’s very, very true. Will, when he comes into some unexpected time, gives his best friend a decade. But his friend—who seems to spend a great deal of his spare (and not-so-spare) time at the local watering hole—wastes it all on booze and literally drinks himself to death, leaving behind a wife and baby.

Others drink wine and champagne. Will’s rich friend shares a flask of something with him.

Other Noteworthy Elements

[ Spoiler Warning ] When Will has his gift of time—the time given to him by his suicidal friend—taken away from him by the timekeepers, he turns to a life of crime. He kidnaps Sylvia, though it’s not long before the two become the time-bandit version of Bonnie and Clyde. They begin robbing time banks, giving the poor most of what they take … a crime spree that eventually culminates in them stealing a great many years from Sylvia’s father and turning it over to the destitute.

“Is it stealing if it’s already stolen?” Sylvia asks. It seems like a fair question, but the answer still has to be yes. Because the counter-question is, If the stuff you’re stealing was really stolen from someone else, is it OK to spend it on yourself?

Will and Sylvia refuse to grapple with that second question, using their ill-gotten time to pamper themselves. Will and others engage in high-stakes gambling.

Someone throws up in a toilet.

It’s appropriate that In Time is so focused on the clock, because the film itself is a little two-faced. On the hour hand, we have this intriguing premise—the distribution of time. One of the world’s great levelers has always been time: No matter how rich or poor we are, we all get the same 24 hours in a day, and (quality healthcare aside) we can’t ever really buy more of it. In Time flips that long-standing reality on its head, transferring our days and weeks and years into the hands of a very few, very wealthy people.

But if you look at the minute hand, you can see that the film manages to transform this compelling theme into a silly, almost campy crime caper pandering to the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Certainly those who question the merits of capitalism and favor redistribution of wealth—however wealth is defined—will find much to like here.

And even then, In Time isn’t wholly consistent. It’s easy to latch onto the idea that hoarding time would be a crime. That the economic system in play here is inherently unpleasant. But the fact that Will and Sylvia spend so freely of other people’s time when they “steal it back” doesn’t bode well for an unswerving narrative. Shouldn’t they be giving that time back to its rightful owners? It feels sort of like a rapper railing against poverty on one song, then trumpeting his latest Maybach on the next. There’s just something unseemly about it.

The film tells us that time is a precious commodity. Agreed. It’s all the more reason to think long and hard before spending it on this movie.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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In Time (2011)

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Welcome to a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there's a catch: you're genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich earn decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo's love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system.

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Movie Review: In Time (2011)

Aaron Leggo
Movie Reviews
7 responses
--> November 15, 2011

I often feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done (I could always use a few more hours for movie watching!), but such complaining pales in comparison to the plight of the citizens of Andrew Niccol’s sci-fi parable In Time . For them, time is their lifeblood and not having enough hours in the day to do fun stuff is a simple irritant rendered pointless by the fact that they generally have barely enough time to live. Set in a sort of alternate reality (or retro-ized future) where time is the new currency, In Time imaginatively and impressively explores the conflict between the time-rich and the time-poor.

Everyone walks around with a glowing green set of numbers that burn bright just beneath the skin of their forearms. The numbers break down how much time each individual has, ranging from a few minutes to the ridiculously near-immortal period of several thousand years. For those living in the ghetto, like protagonist Will (Justin Timberlake, actually wearing the charismatic role relatively convincingly), life is a constant struggle to maintain digits on their internal clock. Will works a dull job in some sort of dull factory and the time he logs is paid out in time that he then has to use to keep the bills at bay. It’s a tough life where the only end in sight is his time completely running out.

Niccol grabs us from the beginning with his virulent display of concept exploration. He instantly sets up the premise and then begins to really hammer home the strange, startling specifics of the situation. Want a cup of coffee? That’ll be four minutes! It may not sound like much at first, but considering that most ghetto denizens are walking around with just a few hours on their arms puts the cost of such common pleasures in perspective. Costs keep rising, too, while stagnant wages squash any hope of getting ahead. Living paycheck-to-paycheck has been replaced by quite literally living day-to-day and the expired bodies that keep ending up on the ghetto streets are a strong sign that things are only getting worse.

The metaphor for economic imbalance is blatantly obvious and Niccol boils it down even further by focusing entirely on one ghetto and one big, luxurious city. Maps on walls tell us that the entire U.S. is divided into “time zones” and it’s safe to assume that the rest of the world is in a similar situation, but Niccol isn’t interested in taking a globalized approach to the fascinating concept. He wants to provide a more focused microcosm of this new type of society. By reducing the narrative to one good, though poor zone, and one bad, though rich zone, he is able to tighten his view and provide a more character-centric adventure. The claustrophobic setting doesn’t leave much room for any gray area (people are either really good or really bad), but at least Niccol applies the duotone approach to all aspects of the movie. He’s certainly consistent.

Nobody is ever straddling the middle road here, so when the inciting incident shows up, it’s sure to skip the space between time-poor and time-rich. In this world, no such space exists, so Will has the incredible fortune of being rewarded for a combination of good Samaritan work and great timing (oh the irony!) by gaining over a century of life. Suddenly, he’s gone from pitifully poor to wantonly wealthy. With this new lease on life, he’s finally able to escape the ghetto (it requires a ton of time to cross into another “time zone”) and check out the big, fancy city. Of course, Will isn’t about to be corrupted by riches, since all he wants is to break down the barriers between rich and poor and add some balance to this mess.

Will’s journey allows the movie to transform into a slightly clunky action vehicle during which he kidnaps the feisty daughter (Amanda Seyfried) of a calm, collected dude (Vincent Kartheiser) who might just be the closest thing to an immortal on the planet and is then hunted by a group of time-cops led by a scowling Cillian Murphy. Niccol’s handling of the action sequences is nowhere near as interesting as his handling of the day-to-day conflict enacted by the concept, but he does approach the chase sequences with enough zeal in order to prevent the adoption of an action flick template from feeling too arbitrary.

None of the performances in the movie are particularly outstanding, but they’re all pretty good at the same time and Timberlake is fun to watch in the embattled hero role. Seyfried is a bit one-note, but at least her character isn’t a complete damsel in distress and she makes her heroic moments look good. A romantic edge soon emerges and they prove to have enough chemistry to make it all plausible. Murphy and Kartheiser are playing two rotten bad guys with pretty flat arcs, but they’re still intimidating enough to take seriously. Even Alex Pettyfer offers a decent turn as a time-stealing gangster, certainly a step in the right direction after embarrassing himself earlier this year in the horrid “ I Am Number Four ” and laughable “Beastly.”

Adding extra flavor in key areas, Niccol warps the design of the movie by employing a retro chic that is offset by the stunningly futuristic time pieces embedded under everyone’s skin. All of the cars have classic designs, but appear to run on electricity (the idea of surviving one economic hardship with the abandonment of gas-powered engines, only to face a far more difficult one is an unspoken commentary). And then there’s the curious absence of cell phones, so often a staple of future world redesigns. At one point, Will decides to make a call and he rounds a corner only to find . . . a series of payphones?! As if the lives of ghettoized individuals living hour-by-hour need to be any more inconvenienced.

With his trademark use of sickly yellows and pretty blues, Niccol paints an intriguing portrait of extreme class struggles gone uniquely and chronologically awry. In Time puts Niccol back in juicy science fiction territory, from where he launched his brilliant 1997 directorial debut “Gattaca.” The thought-provoking sci-fi narrative with a human twist is clearly a passion of Niccol’s and this represents a more satisfying return to the genre than his clumsy 2002 picture “S1m0ne.” This film is still nowhere near the magic of his first movie which remains proof of Niccol’s ability to craft a profoundly emotional experience. But despite what In Time is not, it remains a creatively clever concept picture with a really sharp imagination. It tickles the mind and acts as a strong, inventive reminder that while a fancy cup of coffee may be expensive in our world, at least it doesn’t cost us our lives.

Tagged: future , love , police , wealth

You and I both know the truth. You just don't admit it.

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'Movie Review: In Time (2011)' have 7 comments

November 15, 2011 @ 12:25 pm Cheryl

New faces, original story — I quite liked In Time.

November 15, 2011 @ 12:59 pm Ed

If nothing else, it was an interesting way to depict the divide between the haves and have nots.

November 15, 2011 @ 2:16 pm Wringer

Justin Timberlake isn’t the action hero type so I felt he was miscast. Can’t go wrong with having Olivia Wilde and Amanda Seyfried around to steam the screen up though.

November 15, 2011 @ 5:25 pm Cooter

Can someone explain to me how or why Amanda Seyfried runs in those god-forsaken shoes the entire time?

November 16, 2011 @ 6:24 am Kwail

I saw it more as a failed attempt at a Gattaca-Logan’s Run fusion.

November 17, 2011 @ 11:07 pm Mark Zhuravsky

Excellent review, I was sorely disappointed by the film but reading your critique, I was reminded of the few aspects of it I enjoyed. I have to disagree about Murphy’s character, I feel like he’s gifted with some shades of grey and a moral compass that Kartheiser’s Philippe Weis lacks.

November 17, 2011 @ 11:44 pm Lisa Anne

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

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"Wasting Time"

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

(HH, ACapACap, PCPC, CoCo, Ev, LL, VVV, S, N, AA, MM) Strong humanist, anti-capitalist, politically correct, communist re-distribute the wealth worldview, with a couple mentions of Darwinism; 17 obscenities and 4 profanities; strong and very strong violence includes man falls of bridge after letting his life time run out, men shoot at each other, shooting at cars, cars run into buildings, car falls off cliff and passengers scarred, main character shoots three men and kills them, women character shoots police and holds gun up to father; some sexual innuendo such as girl in underwear kisses man, prostitutes strolling, and other kissing; upper male nudity, skinny dipping but no nudity seen, girls (including prostitutes) in scantily clad outfits, girl in underwear; alcohol use and drunkenness; no smoking; and, lying, kidnapping, rebellion against father, comments on evolution, stealing, gambling.

More Detail:

Set in the future, IN TIME shows time being the currency of the day, where people will do anything to add time to their life clocks. IN TIME clearly cost a pretty penny but money doesn’t lead to quality, the dialogue and acting was cheesy, and there was a clear communist undertone.

Justin Timberlake plays Wil Salas, who’s fighting every day to live just a little longer, usually having only one day left. His fortunes go up though when Wil saves an extremely rich man, who in turns gives Wil all of his years. On his mother’s birthday, she clocks out of time and dies in his hands. In distress, Wil decides to transfer time zones into the richest, in order to “pay them back for what they have done.” Meeting a wealthy bank owner’s daughter, Sylvia, Wil takes her captive when the police, known as timekeepers, come for his arrest due to suspicions about his newfound years.

As a ransom, Wil asks Sylvia’s father, Philippe, to turn in a thousand years to the bank in the slum area so that the poor people can get out loans. Philippe doesn’t give the time, however. This leads to the already rebellious Sylvia willingly staying with Wil in the slums.

Sylvia and Wil work together stealing from her father’s banks to give to the poor. All the while, the Timekeepers are out to get the two of them, along with the local slum gang leader.

IN TIME clearly had a large budget, but this doesn’t negate the issue of the cheesy dialogue. The writer/director, Andrew Niccol (GATTACA and THE TRUMAN SHOW), doesn’t hit the mark this time. He creates dialogue viewers have always heard time and time again in this genre. Worse, there’s clearly a strong humanist, communist message of taking from the rich and giving to the poor in order for everyone to be on the same level. The rich are seen as greedy and lack compassion, whereas the poor are justified in their fight to live, and, if that means stealing from the rich, then they have that right. An emphasis on giving loans to the poor is also a big theme.

MOVIEGUIDE® rejects this kind of unbiblical politics of envy. As one pundit put it, redistributing wealth like the protagonist does in this movie is just “trickle up poverty.”

All in all, IN TIME is a stereotypical science fiction movie with major worldview problems. Media-wise viewers won’t want to waste their time with IN TIME. Instead, they’d probably prefer checking out the writer/director’s other, better movies, THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE TERMINAL, or GATTACA.

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User reviews

In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Will Salas is accused of murder and on the run with a hostage.
Welcome to a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there's a catch: you're genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich "earn" decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo's love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system. — Twentieth Century Fox
In a future society, people are genetically modified to stop aging at twenty five and after that a clock is activated with one more year for each citizen. Time is a currency and the wealthy that live in the New Greenwich are immortals while the poor live in ghettos in time zones are exploited and forced to live with a few hours or days, and need to work, borrow, beg or steal to stay alive. Thieves steal time and the timekeepers control the society. When the worker Will Salas saves the rich Henry Hamilton from a dangerous gang of thieves, Henry tells that he is 105 years old and is tired of living, since there is no need for the deaths in the unfair society. When Will sleeps, Henry gives more than one hundred years to him and commits suicide. Will runs to meet his mother Rachel Salas to credit time to her but she dies before the transference. Will heads to New Greenwich but the timekeeper Raymond Leon believes that he killed Henry to steal his time. Will flirts with Sylvia Weis, who is the spoiled daughter of the millionaire Philippe Weis, in a party and when Raymond arrests him, Will Salas kidnaps Sylvia and brings her to the ghetto where he lives. Sylvia feels how despicable her father is and together with Will, they steal a large quantity of time to fight against the system. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In a future society people have been engineered not to age once reaching 25 but can only live for one more year as time is now the currency. Those who trade it can live for more than a 100 years. Society's classes are divided into what they call time zones. The richest live in the Greenwich section. One of the residents of Greenwich wanders into the poor section where someone sees how much time he has which is 100 years and wants to steal it. Will Salas, a decent guy saves him but he tells Will that he wanted to die because he's tired of a system wherein someone has to die for others to live. While Will is sleeping he gives Will his time and walks off to die. Will goes off to share it with his mother but she dies because of inflation. Will heads off to Greenwich. He then meets a girl named Sylvia whose father is the one behind the system. A law enforcement office known as a Timekeeper who's investigating the death of the man who gave Will his time, assumes that Will stole it. So he confiscates it and arrests Will. Will then takes Sylvia hostage and runs off with her. He goes back to his time zone and asks for a ransom but when her father doesn't give it. He lets her go but when she's in danger Will saves her and they decide to work together to take down the system. — [email protected]
In the future when the aging gene has been switched off, people must pay to stay alive. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency that people use to pay for luxuries and necessities from a clock implanted in their forearm. This can easily be transferred among individuals on body contact. The rich can live forever, while the rest try to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man is accused of murder when he inherits a fortune of time from a dead upper class man, though too late to help his mother from dying. He is forced to go on the run from a corrupt police force known as 'time keepers'. — Nicky Mitchell
By the year 2169, genetic alteration has allowed humanity to stop aging at 25. 'Living time', which can be transferred among individuals on body-contact, is displayed on a clock implanted in people's forearms. When that clock reaches zero, one dies instantly. Society is divided by social class living in specialized towns called 'Time Zones'. The poor live in the ghettos of Dayton, where youth predominate, and must work each day to earn a few more hours of life, which they must also use to pay for everyday necessities, as time has replaced money as currency. The rich live in the luxurious New Greenwich, where the middle-aged and elderly predominate, though they look young because they have stopped aging at 25 years old as well. 28-year-old factory worker Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) lives with his mother Rachel (Olivia Wilde) in the ghettos. One day, Will saves 105-year-old Henry Hamilton from suffering a time-robbery assault in a bar. Hamilton is attacked by Fortis; the elderly British mobster boss of a middle-aged gang called the Minute Men. Will rescues Hamilton, who tells him, "For few to be immortal, many must die", as there is essentially enough time for everyone to live a full life, but it is stockpiled for the rich to become immortal. An upset Will argues that no one should die before their time naturally ends, upon which Hamilton describes how he no longer even desires life, in saying "Your mind can be spent, even if your body is not. We want to die. We need to." Hamilton explains that rich control the population of the poor by exploiting the time zone system & by raising prices and taxes, so that poor keep dying, else "where would you put them". Later that night, Hamilton transfers 116 years to the sleeping Will, keeping only five minutes for himself, which he uses to go and sit on a bridge over an aqueduct. As his time expires, Hamilton falls into the river below. Will arrives too late to save him. Resident police force, the Timekeepers, have various theories as to his death. A young timekeeper, Jaeger, correctly assumes Hamilton had "timed out", a.k.a. killed himself, but a middle-aged veteran Timekeeper, Raymond León (Cillian Murphy), is convinced he was murdered by a Dayton resident. Will visits his friend, Borel, and gives him 10 years of time, one for each year of their friendship. Will waits for his mother at a bus station, only to discover that she didn't have enough time to pay for her usual bus ride after the price suddenly increased. Faced with a 2-hour walk, she tries to find anyone who can loan her time but failing in that she runs in a panic, watching her life slip away with minutes left. Will also runs his mom's bus route to find her. They encounter each other on foot, and as she runs and leaps into his arms, her time expires, and she dies. Remembering what Hamilton told him about the inequity of the time system, Will decides to seek revenge. He leaves for New Greenwich, with over a century on his clock. It costs time to cross time zone borders & that's how the rich make sure that the poor never cross over into their zones. Upon arrival, he enters a casino, where he meets an old millionaire, time-loaning businessman Philippe Weis and his daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). Sylvia has observed Will's arrival in Greenwich and became further intrigued at the gambling table, where Will beats her father in poker betting practically his entire time. She invites Will to a party at her father's mansion. At the mansion, Will is apprehended by León, who confiscates all of his time, spare two hours. Will then escapes by taking Sylvia hostage. Returning to the ghetto with her, he drives into an ambush of Fortis, who, in disappointment to find that the unconscious Will lost all of Hamilton's time, steals most of Sylvia's, failing to take the last half hour as the approach of Timekeepers forces him to leave. Will returns to consciousness and gives Sylvia some of his remaining time so they can return to his old neighborhood. They first visit Borel to retrieve some time Will gave him earlier, only to find out from Borel's grief-stricken wife, Greta, that he drank himself to death with 9 years on his clock. Sylvia pawns her jewelry for the meager price of 2 days. Finding themselves a shelter, Will calls Weis demanding a 1,000 years' ransom for Sylvia, to be distributed to the people of the ghetto. León traces Will's location from his phone call, and heads to Dayton in pursuit. Will discovers that Weis did not pay the ransom, but decides to let Sylvia go regardless. León appears to arrest Will but is shot in the shoulder by Sylvia. Will transfers two hours of time to the disarmed Leon so he can walk out of Dayton before he "times out". Will and Sylvia escape in León's patrol car and use it to steal a limo. Later, Will tells her that she still has a chance to walk away from the situation, but she says there is no purpose to the life she once had in New Greenwich. They begin a series of Time Bank robberies, stealing Time Capsules which store time equivalents and distributing them to the poor, getting a bounty of 10 years on their heads. Fortis eventually tracks down Will and Sylvia a second time, and challenges Will to a Time Fight. Will uses the technique he learned from his late father to defeat Fortis. Will and Sylvia realize their previous efforts were futile, as the rich have the power to simply increase the cost of living in the ghettos to maintain the status Quo. They succeed in stealing a million years from Weis' private headquarters in a Time Capsule, Will informing Weis in the process that nobody should be immortal if even one person has to die. As they return to Dayton, Leon crashes his car into Will's, but Will is able to hand the Time Capsule to a young girl who then distributes the time among the people. León eventually catches up with Will and Sylvia outside the city, holding them at gunpoint. Having noticed that León behaves differently from the other Timekeepers, Will correctly guesses that Leon was himself from the ghettos once, but managed to successfully circumvent the system. Will jokingly asks León to return some of the time he previously loaned him so that they can survive until their executions, but Leon realizes that he had neglected to replenish his own time before going after them and dies. Will and Sylvia are left with seconds to live. Will runs to León's car and takes his allotted time. In a scene mirroring his mother's death, Will transfers the time to Sylvia seconds before she is about to die. Will and Sylvia continue robbing banks as part of their efforts to crash the system, now with a bounty of 100 years on their heads, while the rich attempt to cope with the sudden surge of people who now have enough time to change zones arriving from the ghettos. A news broadcast shows the factories, in which Will once worked, are no longer in action. Factory workers, now rich with Time, cross Time Zones while the Timekeepers look on. The last scene shows Will and Sylvia preparing to rob an obscenely huge Time Bank and continue disrupting the system.

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Review: In Time Is Tepid Sci-Fi With an 'Occupy' Message

Image may contain Justin Timberlake Clothing Apparel Human Person Tie Accessories and Accessory

They should screen In Time at "Occupy" sleepovers around the country. It's a tepid sci-fi movie with a simplistic message about "Darwinian capitalism" that should resonate with the crowds assembling to protest the current state of affairs.

That message is: Rich people are bad and the system is rigged.

In the dystopian future nightmared up in the movie, which opens Friday, working-class zeros face a relentless industrial hell that makes our current debt-fueled recession look like a picnic. The blue-collar drones of In Time would never think of sitting around "occupying" Wall Street or anything else – in their world, time is literally money, and most people seem to be within a day or so of running out, which results in sudden death.

( Spoiler alert: Minor plot points follow.)

Image may contain Skin Word Arm and Text

Time is money, and individuals' constantly dwindling bank accounts are displayed on their forearms.

A $4 Starbucks latte seems like a bargain compared to In Time's paranoid PG-13 scenario, in which you trade four minutes of your life for a cup of coffee. In that horrible world, work a double at the factory and you might earn enough to sleep in, but the clock's always ticking.

What's worse, it's ticking in your arm. As explained in the movie's breezy prologue, some sort of genetic-engineering breakthrough has transformed human life so that everyone stops aging at 25, at which point they have exactly one year to live. Everybody's remaining time is conveniently tracked in florescent-green digital readouts embedded in their forearms. The upshot is that the rich are basically immortal, as long as they don't choke on a spoonful of caviar or wreck a fancy car.

It's an interesting concept, but that's about as deep as the thinking goes. In poor "time zones," the people are always running about in a hurry; in the rich sectors, the elites relax and gamble away spare decades. As the movie unfolds, we get sinister glimpses of a deeper conspiracy afoot – laced with loopy talk about crashing the market if too much time gets into the wrong hands – all based on the concept that for a few to live forever, many must die. We also learn that the father of Will Salas (played by Justin Timberlake ) was some sort of freedom fighter, presumably in a half-hearted attempt to give the character depth.

This image may contain Clothing Apparel Human Person Jacket and Coat

Cillian Murphy plays a relentless time cop in In Time. Photos: Stephen Vaughan/20th Century Fox

What we're left with is basically a chase movie. Shortly after a suicidal time baron leaves his fortune to Salas, a disastrous turn of events sets him on a course for revenge. He makes his way to New Greenwich, where the rich people live, intent on making "them" pay. He quickly runs into Sylvia Weis ( Amanda Seyfried ), daughter of oily time baron Philippe Weis ( Vincent Kartheiser ).

After she lays out the dilemma of the rich – living in fear, they shy away from any type of risk – she and Salas share a little bit of old-fashioned skinny-dipping as she discovers the raw joy of the ocean. Soon he's kidnapped her and the pair are off and running, dodging cops known as Timekeepers and time-thieving thugs known as Minutemen. (There's plenty of that kind of time-oriented punning in the movie, so brace yourself – you can almost set your watch by it.)

Director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, S1m0ne) obviously loves thinking big thoughts. "When I was doing Gattaca," he told Film School Rejects, "I knew the holy grail of genetic engineering was to discover the aging gene, and switch it off . You'll see, even in Gattaca, the symbol of the genetically superior in this world is the infinity symbol. Obviously, their goal was to live forever.... [The two movies are] not intentionally tied together, but the implications are so great. If everyone could live forever, then there would be massive overpopulation, so that's why I came up with the idea of trading time."

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Polestar?

Unfortunately, this high concept could use some solid grounding. Niccol is making an extremely timely (forgive me) if ham-handed argument about the roles of the rich and the poor in a capitalist system, but all the broad-brush talk about the abuses of the superwealthy and the importance of valuing your remaining time on Earth does nothing to elevate In Time beyond the pseudo-intellectual realm. None of it feels very visceral or all that original.

We're left with an action movie with stylish cinematography, ridiculous arm-wrestling duels and cerebral ambitions. Timberlake is undeniably good at running, and he's not a half-bad actor. In a movie almost devoid of special effects – the gritty slums and gilded mansions of various time zones are retro-futuristic, meaning we get sleek sports cars, not jetpacks – Seyfried's beautiful bug eyes steal the show. The two main characters are likable enough, and Cillian Murphy plays the creepy Terminator card as a stony Timekeeper intent on bringing Salas to justice, but it's hard to care about anybody's fate without the proper groundwork being laid.

Worse yet, In Time squanders its built-in mechanism for generating tension. When people "time out," their deaths are almost laughably simple. 24's ticking clock made for much more taut entertainment.

That's probably because, much like the Occupy movement , In Time can't seem to decide what it wants to be. Is it a Logan's Run ripoff? A Gattaca clone? A Total Recall parable about the oppressed working class? A sci-fi Robin Hood or Bonnie and Clyde?

In the end, it's a simplistic sci-fi story with clunky dialogue, few surprises and very little real insight into the human condition. They should've spent a little more time, or money, on the script.

WIRED High-concept sci-fi idea; badass retro-futuristic cop cars.

TIRED Dicey dialog; yet another dreary dystopia.

Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide .

See Also:- Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried Talk In Time's Sci-Fi Nightmare

Director Calls In Time 'Bastard Child of Gattaca'
New In Time Trailer Details 'Time Is Money' Sci-Fi Facism

Concord’s Death Offers a Bleak Look at Gaming’s Future

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300 Best Movies of All Time

Welcome to the 300 highest-rated best movies of all time, as reviewed and selected by Tomatometer-approved critics and Rotten Tomatoes users.

1.	(1997)
2.	(1972)
3.	(1942)
4.	(1954)
5.	(2019)
6.	(1993)
7.	(2022)
8.	(1999)
9.	(1974)
10.	(1954)
11.	(1966)
12.	(1995)
13.	(1954)
14.	(1936)
15.	(2010)
16.	(1950)
17.	(2001)
18.	(2009)
19.	(1949)
20.	(2015)
21.	(2018)
22.	(1940)
23.	(2003)
24.	(1952)
25.	(1957)
26.	(2010)
27.	(1950)
28.	(2017)
29.	(1974)
30.	(1994)
31.	(2014)
32.	(2016)
33.	(1941)
34.	(1977)
35.	(1967)
36.	(2023)
37.	(2015)
38.	(1964)
39.	(2008)
40.	(2002)
41.	(2019)
42.	(1931)
43.	(2019)
44.	(2008)
45.	(1990)
46.	(1939)
47.	(1944)
48.	(1960)
49.	(2017)
50.	(1995)
51.	(2008)
52.	(1941)
53.	(1934)
54.	(1953)
55.	(1959)
56.	(1948)
57.	(1979)
58.	(2012)
59.	(2017)
60.	(1921)
61.	(2023)
62.	(2002)
63.	(1949)
64.	(1959)
65.	(1988)
66.	(2017)
67.	(2020)
68.	(2019)
69.	(1948)
70.	(1979)
71.	(2018)
72.	(1971)
73.	(1985)
74.	(2015)
75.	(1953)
76.	(1964)
77.	(1927)
78.	(1997)
79.	(1925)
80.	(1986)
81.	(2023)
82.	(1967)
83.	(2011)
84.	(1991)
85.	(1982)
86.	(1944)
87.	(1940)
88.	(1940)
89.	(1930)
90.	(2001)
91.	(1957)
92.	(1955)
93.	(1944)
94.	(1957)
95.	(2018)
96.	(1940)
97.	(1979)
98.	(1984)
99.	(2000)
100.	(2010)

How did we select and rank the movies? First, every movie here is Certified Fresh.

Then we applied our recommendation formula, which considers a movie’s Tomatometer rating with assistance from its Audience Score, illuminating beloved sentiment from both sides. Critics-certified, audience-approved!

101.	(2008)
102.	(2013)
103.	(2002)
104.	(1975)
105.	(1956)
106.	(2006)
107.	(1948)
108.	(1959)
109.	(1981)
110.	(1952)
111.	(1945)
112.	(2017)
113.	(2016)
114.	(2016)
115.	(1969)
116.	(1964)
117.	(1941)
118.	(1998)
119.	(2007)
120.	(2009)
121.	(1999)
122.	(1975)
123.	(1977)
124.	(1943)
125.	(2008)
126.	(2015)
127.	(1939)
128.	(2021)
129.	(1946)
130.	(1957)
131.	(1974)
132.	(2014)
133.	(2019)
134.	(1992)
135.	(1938)
136.	(1994)
137.	(2010)
138.	(2018)
139.	(1980)
140.	(1928)
141.	(1994)
142.	(2019)
143.	(1985)
144.	(1923)
145.	(2008)
146.	(2016)
147.	(2019)
148.	(2022)
149.	(2006)
150.	(2016)
151.	(1995)
152.	(1954)
153.	(1950)
154.	(1935)
155.	(2011)
156.	(1970)
157.	(1975)
158.	(1967)
159.	(1981)
160.	(2019)
161.	(1957)
162.	(1933)
163.	(1945)
164.	(2019)
165.	(2014)
166.	(2004)
167.	(2020)
168.	(2015)
169.	(2023)
170.	(1987)
171.	(1927)
172.	(2013)
173.	(1962)
174.	(1951)
175.	(1996)
176.	(2016)
177.	(1957)
178.	(1934)
179.	(1968)
180.	(2004)
181.	(1995)
182.	(2018)
183.	(2003)
184.	(1966)
185.	(2014)
186.	(1940)
187.	(2016)
188.	(1964)
189.	(1998)
190.	(1979)
191.	(1963)
192.	(2019)
193.	(1993)
194.	(1925)
195.	(1941)
196.	(1970)
197.	(1945)
198.	(1993)
199.	(2023)
200.	(1972)

Other factors weighing into the recommendation formula: a movie’s number of critics reviews, the number of Audience Score votes, and its year of release. An editorial pass is reserved to finesse the final list, which included minimum thresholds for each of these data points.

201.	(2001)
202.	(2019)
203.	(1989)
204.	(2015)
205.	(2003)
206.	(1935)
207.	(1978)
208.	(2023)
209.	(1997)
210.	(1967)
211.	(2010)
212.	(2018)
213.	(2017)
214.	(1991)
215.	(1985)
216.	(2016)
217.	(1937)
218.	(1974)
219.	(1996)
220.	(1955)
221.	(1960)
222.	(1995)
223.	(1997)
224.	(1952)
225.	(2018)
226.	(1938)
227.	(1973)
228.	(2017)
229.	(2014)
230.	(2006)
231.	(2007)
232.	(2002)
233.	(2004)
234.	(1939)
235.	(1985)
236.	(1988)
237.	(2007)
238.	(1994)
239.	(2013)
240.	(1963)
241.	(1973)
242.	(1973)
243.	(1958)
244.	(1961)
245.	(1951)
246.	(1959)
247.	(1962)
248.	(1971)
249.	(2007)
250.	(1964)
251.	(1946)
252.	(1959)
253.	(1993)
254.	(2014)
255.	(1980)
256.	(1993)
257.	(1984)
258.	(1991)
259.	(1974)
260.	(1931)
261.	(1989)
262.	(2002)
263.	(1968)
264.	(2017)
265.	(1992)
266.	(1929)
267.	(1938)
268.	(1964)
269.	(2015)
270.	(1993)
271.	(2008)
272.	(2000)
273.	(1956)
274.	(2017)
275.	(1968)
276.	(1935)
277.	(1993)
278.	(2015)
279.	(1953)
280.	(2001)
281.	(1942)
282.	(1976)
283.	(1957)
284.	(1976)
285.	(1946)
286.	(2012)
287.	(1996)
288.	(1975)
289.	(1979)
290.	(1972)
291.	(2016)
292.	(1987)
293.	(1980)
294.	(2013)
295.	(1960)
296.	(1946)
297.	(1956)
298.	(1939)
299.	(1960)
300.	(1919)

After this guide’s launch period, we’ll visit movies released in 2024, with frequent updates and refreshes from there.

L.A. Confidential (1997) 99%

The Godfather (1972) 97%

Casablanca (1942) 99%

Seven Samurai (1954) 100%

Parasite (2019) 99%

Schindler's List (1993) 98%

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 96%

Toy Story 2 (1999) 100%

Chinatown (1974) 98%

On the Waterfront (1954) 99%

The Battle of Algiers (1966) 99%

Toy Story (1995) 100%

Rear Window (1954) 98%

Modern Times (1936) 98%

How to Train Your Dragon (2010) 99%

All About Eve (1950) 99%

Spirited Away (2001) 96%

Up (2009) 98%

The Third Man (1949) 99%

Spotlight (2015) 97%

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) 97%

The Philadelphia Story (1940) 100%

Finding Nemo (2003) 99%

Singin' in the Rain (1952) 100%

12 Angry Men (1957) 100%

Toy Story 3 (2010) 98%

Sunset Boulevard (1950) 98%

Coco (2017) 97%

The Godfather, Part II (1974) 96%

Three Colors: Red (1994) 100%

Selma (2014) 99%

Zootopia (2016) 98%

Citizen Kane (1941) 99%

Annie Hall (1977) 97%

Cool Hand Luke (1967) 100%

The Holdovers (2023) 97%

Inside Out (2015) 98%

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 98%

Let the Right One In (2008) 98%

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) 95%

Knives Out (2019) 97%

M (1931) 100%

Toy Story 4 (2019) 97%

The Wrestler (2008) 98%

Goodfellas (1990) 95%

The Wizard of Oz (1939) 98%

Double Indemnity (1944) 97%

Psycho (1960) 97%

Paddington 2 (2017) 99%

Before Sunrise (1995) 100%

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In Time
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"Time is Money."
In Time movie review & film summary (2011)
In Time (2011)
Reviews: In Time
In Time (2011)
In Time: Directed by Andrew Niccol. With Justin Timberlake, Olivia Wilde, Shyloh Oostwald, Johnny Galecki. In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Will Salas is accused of murder and on the run with a hostage.
In Time
Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews, Trailers, Showtimes, and Tickets
In Time
In Time - Metacritic. 2011. PG-13. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. 1 h 49 m. Summary In a future where time is literally money, and aging stops at 25, the only way to stay alive is to earn, steal, or inherit more time. Will Salas lives life a minute at a time, until a windfall of time gives him access to the world of the wealthy, where ...
A Review of "In Time": Story Explained and Analysis
The plot of "In Time" presents a thought-provoking premise that challenges the audience to reflect on the value of time and social inequalities. Set in a dystopian future, "In Time" presents a world where people are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. However, this "blessing" comes with a caveat: after that, people have to ...
'In Time,' SciFi Film With Justin Timberlake
In Time. Directed by Andrew Niccol. Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller. PG-13. 1h 49m. By Manohla Dargis. Oct. 27, 2011. The tick tick tock of the mortal clock gives the science-fiction thriller "In Time ...
In Time Movie Review
Our review: Parents say (12 ): Kids say (44 ): The first half of IN TIME is stylish and original and offers just enough action and punny time jokes to be genuinely entertaining without being over the top. Parading an all-star cast of talented actors, led by the always charismatic Timberlake, the movie is by turns a thriller, a treatise on the ...
In Time (2011)
36 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com. 90. Movieline Stephanie Zacharek. In Time has so much style and energy that it comes across as an act of boldness rather than just a liberal-minded tract, though of course, it's that too. If there were ever a movie made for the 99 percent, this is it. 75.
In Time: Film Review
Movies; Movie Reviews; In Time: Film Review. Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried star in Andrew Niccol's dystopian film, giving new currency to Benjamin Franklin's infamous quote, "Time is Money
In Time
Movie Review. We sometimes talk about living on borrowed time. But no one takes the phrase quite so literally as those who live in the rundown Dayton district. Here, in a world where time really is money—where people stop aging at 25 but start dying then, too, where folks spend minutes for coffee and weeks for a hotel room—the residents of ...
In Time
In Time - Wikipedia ... In Time
In Time (2011)
Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in Rian Johnson's time-travel crime thriller, which hits theaters on September 28, 2012. By Brian Gallagher Jun 9, 2011
IN TIME (2011)
Here is my review and analysis of Andrew Niccol's 2011 science fiction movie, In Time, starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.Support this channel on...
Movie Review: In Time (2011)
But despite what In Time is not, it remains a creatively clever concept picture with a really sharp imagination. It tickles the mind and acts as a strong, inventive reminder that while a fancy cup of coffee may be expensive in our world, at least it doesn't cost us our lives. Critical Movie Critic Rating: 4. Movie Review: J. Edgar (2011)
In Time critic reviews
Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed. X. Games Explore Games ... In Time Critic Reviews. Add My Rating Critic Reviews User Reviews Cast & Crew Details 53. Metascore Mixed or Average ...
Movie Reviews for Families
All in all, IN TIME is a stereotypical science fiction movie with major worldview problems. Media-wise viewers won't want to waste their time with IN TIME. Instead, they'd probably prefer checking out the writer/director's other, better movies, THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE TERMINAL, or GATTACA.
In Time (2011)
In Time (2011) - Plot
Movie reviews and ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert
Movie reviews and ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert | Roger ...
Review: In Time Is Tepid Sci-Fi With an 'Occupy' Message
In a movie almost devoid of special effects - the gritty slums and gilded mansions of various time zones are retro-futuristic, meaning we get sleek sports cars, not jetpacks - Seyfried's ...
Rotten Tomatoes: Movies
Rotten Tomatoes: Movies | TV Shows | Movie Trailers ...
300 Best Movies of All Time
300 Best Movies of All Time

The Odd Apple

The plot of “In Time” presents a thought-provoking premise that challenges the audience to reflect on the value of time and social inequalities.

Will Salas and Sylvia Weis represent the disparities between the wealthy and the poor. Each character provides insights about the complexities of social stratification.

Despite being set in a dystopian future, “In Time” shares a lot of parallels with our current contemporary society, which deserves its own analysis.

Final Thoughts

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