Niccol’s In Time charts the epic journey of Will Salas (played excellently by Justin Timberlake) as he attempts to abolish a system in which everyone is genetically engineered to stop ageing at 25, and are then given a further year to live.

This year becomes a commodity that can be increased or decreased in order to extend one’s life. As a result, the majority is forced to buy time through engaging in arduous, manual labour, whilst a small elite situated in an exclusive city of opulence enjoy lives that stretch for centuries in length; immortality remaining a perfectly realisable goal.

This latter system, that maintains its affluence via the act of exploiting the majority, is of a nightmarish quality. Real-life, 21st century capitalism guarantees materialistic pleasure for a rich elite, but only temporarily in the sense that finite human existence prevents any permanency in this state of pleasure. In the world envisioned by Niccol, however, time is the very currency that the rich control. This entails that that materialistic pleasure never runs short, because of the very fact that it is undeserved (it is there because time is stolen from the working majority and will continue to exist, so long as time continues to be stolen).

The problems with the film are barely noticeable considering its plot line is so compelling. However, Amanda Seyfried, who plays the spoilt, yet rebellious child of mogul, Weis (and willing victim of a kidnap operation by Salas), seems unfit to play the leading role that she occupies. Seyfried is appropriately flirtatious and frivolous, but this quickly becomes tedious to watch, as she fails to deliver a sense of multi-dimensionality in her character.

Another minor fault is found in the script. Some of the lines of the dialogue sound bland and trite, in the sense that they are frequently constituted by platitudes such as, “no one should be immortal, if even one person has to die.”

However, the film does flow cohesively and the acting of those beside Seyfried is engaging. These virtues of In Time, coupled with the sheer brilliance of its plot line, make the film a worthwhile watch.