Movie Review: In Time

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A number of years ago cartoon artist Gary Larson came up with a panel that showed a scientist standing in front of a black board with his hands on his hips. On the board were all sorts of equations with the one, right at eye level, showing an equation with the result equaling a dollar symbol. Underneath is the caption "Einstein discovers that time is actually money." What if that were actually the case? What if time was money? What if time is the currency that is traded in transactions where today you would use dollars? Director and writer Andrew Niccol uses this proposition as the basis for his latest movie, In Time.

Will Salas (Justin Timerlake) lives in the future that genetically, when you are born you have one year of time given to you that kicks in once you hit the age of twenty-five and you stay looking that way no matter how much time you live past that moment. How much time you have is on your left forearm in 13 digits: seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months and years. Anyone can see the digits unless its covered, sort of like having your bank account balance out there for anyone to see. When you want a cup of coffee, ride the bus or pay rent you have a deduction taken from your balance. When you work, you have time added. You can give people your time literally or it can be stolen from you as well. When your balance hits zero, you die by a Time Out. If you are killed before you time out, the remaining balance is wasted time.

Will lives with his mother (Olivia Wilde) and works at a factory in Dayton. Very appropriate name considering they live day to day. They struggle to earn enough time to pay the rent on time. When a man, Henry Hamilton, from New Greenwich (the up scale neighborhood) decides that he doesn't want to live any longer, that he wants his time to be up, he gives a sleeping Will over a century of time before he times out himself. Why would Henry just toss in the towel? After living 105 years, he doesn't feel that anyone show live forever. This gift causes problems for Will.

Venturing into New Greenwich based on a comment that Henry made in a conversation the two men had, Will meets Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter to time magnate Phillipe Weis. Will is tracked to New Greenwich by Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) who is investigating the time out of Hamilton. Will escapes taking Sylvia as a hostage as he attempts to correct what he feels is injustice between the people in New Greenwich and the residents of Dayton. A battle of sorts between the haves and the have nots.

The premise showed some promise but it fell into a trap with using all sorts of cliches about time some of which just didn't quite work. There were some inconsistencies in the action of time payments and withdrawals and locations. It was noted between Sylvia and Will that he had not come from Old Time as he was rushing around and he ran where as a person with lots of time on their hand (well, actually arm) would be taking things slower. With time as currency, phrases like "don't waste my time" and "I have all the time in the world" take on new meaning. The other references to time became a bit distracting but you could start to think differently about the time that you have. "Take it a day at a time" would have new meaning as the neon green numbers in your skin count down from 23:59:59. Although I might have missed it, when one person was stealing time from another, I don't remember hearing the phrase "I'm cleaning your clock" coming up. So it does appear they used a little restraint in the cliche department.

If you watch In Time, it will cost you 109 minutes of your time and is rated PG-13 for violence, some sexuality and partial nudity, and strong language.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Letters to Juliet

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Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl who loved each other very much. He asked her to run away and marry him. She agreed, but then she got cold feet and didn't show up at the appropriate time. Heartbroken she leaves a note for a fictional literary character who committed suicide over love asking for her advice. Fifty years later Miss Coldfeet's letter is found and acted upon by the Segreteria Di Giulietta or the Secretaries of Juliet. Sounds crazy, right? Maybe, but that is the basic outline of this week's movie Letters to Juliet starring Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Coldfeet and Amanda Seyfried as the advice giver.

Seyfried's character Sophie is in Italy with her finance Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) on a pre honeymoon as Victor is about to open up his dream Italian restaurant in New York City where she works for the New Yorker magazine as a fact checker. He is more interested in checking out vendors and products for the upcoming opening than spending time with his love. While he's exploring a vineyard Sophie uses her time to visit the famed balcony in Verona where the story of Romeo and Juliet took place. This is where she discovers the Secretaries of Juliet and is welcomed in by the ladies who respond to letters left taped to the courtyard wall asking Juliet for love advice. Dear Abby and Ann Landers, eat your heart out!

After writing the response to Miss Coldfeet, actual name Claire, Sophie decides to hang with the Secretaries only to get confronted a week later by Charlie (Christopher Egan) Claire's grandson who is mad because Claire has come down from her home in England due to the letter. Sophie meets Claire and a decision is made to try to track down the lost love Lorenzo much to the chagrin of Charlie. This is where Sophie's skills as a fact checker come into play.

The three go gallivanting through the Italian countryside to try to reunite the estranged lovers. But what about Victor? Oh, he's excitedly off at a wine auction. He's so absorbed in the auction that he doesn't mind her traipsing around with the English grandma grandson team. They come to find out Lorenzo Bartolini is a very common name around Verona. Through their journey we get to see many, many beautiful views of the countryside. The Italy Tourism Bureau could use this film as a promotional piece showing off villas, vineyards, roadways and hillsides.

Three people trapped in a car for the better part of a week. Hmmmm....something's going to happen. You know the cars in Europe are generally smaller than their US counterparts. Either they are going to rip each other to shreds or they will become best buds. What will happen to our intrepid travelers? If you follow the breadcrumbs along the way you will know and in that way the movie was predictable. But, I still found the movie enjoyable. Can true love hold out for fifty years? Can Amanda Seyfried's eyes look anymore like Shrek's Puss-in-Boots' big eyes? How many Lorenzos will be contacted before the right one is found? Could the beautiful vistas of Italy be shown off any better? You'll have to watch for yourself. If not for the story, just the images shown alone are worth the viewing. BTW, if you saw the trailer you already know the answer to the BIG question.

The one part of the story that I found interesting was that while not known as the Secretaries of Juliet, The Juliet Club does exist. The idea of people writing to the character of Juliet for love advice is like people writing to Marcus Welby MD for medical advice (for those of you youngins who don't know, Marcus Welby was a fictional doctor on TV during the early and mid 70s). They have been doing this for a number of decades now as volunteer men and women respond to about 5000 letters annually from across the globe. They award the "Dear Juliet" prize on Valentines Day for the most compelling letter received the previous year and the "Writing for Love" for a love themed book. OK, so they must know something... If any of you have ever sent a note and received a response from one of the secretaries, I'd like to hear about it. I think after this film they'll be needing to hang out a help wanted sign to handle the influx of advice seekers sending Letters to Juliet.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.