Just In Time

I think it was Lit Bug who kindly recommended the film "In Time" to me, due to my interest in dystopian speculative fiction and my lack of a wish to live forever. I watched it last night, with pleasure, mainly because the idea is brilliant. Moreover, the image of the digital "watch" on your arm which counts down the very seconds that you have left to live (unless you can somehow recharge it) is magnificent, one I think will remain in film history. I also loved the way they portrayed time-related idioms as having gained overwhelming significance in the language. However, they tried to superimpose on this very promising base a run-of-the-mill action movie which I cannot imagine would have halfway satisfied fans of either action movies or science fiction. It also seemed unhappily designed as a "star vehicle" for the two main characters. The male, Justin Timberlake, whom I'd heard of as a singer, was convincing as a "rough diamond", though less so as the saviour of humanity, and was given a few pithy comments to make amid a torrent of platitudes, as was the leading lady, one Amanda Seyfried, who looked great in her opening sequence, when she just, er, looked, and increasingly less so after she had revealed her whiny voice. Her main talent appears to be sprinting in high heels. I couldn't do that, so I shall cease and desist from badmouthing an actress and end by saying that, although I'm a bit fed up with Manichean attitudes even in my beloved sci-fi, and I wish the director had not wilfully misunderstood Darwin, I'm glad that both the endlessly-persecuted goodies and the evil, near-immortal baddies found reasons to reject immortality.