What would you do if you had 9,860 years to live? This is one of the fascinating unspoken concepts from this bold film… In spite of the obvious derivatives, the movie “In Time” is truly a joy to watch unfold. Justin Timberlake as Will Salas in a future where Time is indeed Money! The special effects to have “watches” embedded as a dermal implant was very telling throughout the duration…

You never really think of Time until it is no longer available as a useful commodity for one’s self, like how I always felt I’d resolve my differences with my father but he died before I could truly patch things up. Some of the books he inspired me to read were “Dune,” “Dune Messiah,” “Children Of Dune” and “God Emperor Of Dune” from Frank Herbert, where 10,000 years or the Shining Path was illuminated and stayed with me ever since, and yet even though I know Time is precious – still I behave as though I have a glut of moments to live?

When the movie took old clichés and brought them to Life in this new context, it was a stark wake up call; “DON’T WASTE MY TIME” or “THAT KIND OF TIME CAN GET YOU KILLED” or the fact everyone is punctual, did you see anyone willingly ‘Kill Time‘?

The revolution (a la “Equilibrium“ where there blasts and those who privately supported Christian Bale just walked away or got on like nothing was happening) started when Will lost his mother, played by the beautiful Olivia Wilde and having received a gift of extra time – he decides to see how the Rich live in New Greenwich (GMT, eh?) and plays for time (literally) in Poker.

The man he beats, he eventually seizes his daughter (AMANDA SEYFRIED) as hostage and one of the fastest cases of Stockholm Syndrome evolves before your very eyes – but then cinema can warp time…

Chasing them like a relentless Valjean of “Les Miserables” is another veteran Chrononaut, hailing from ‘Inception‘ which looks at time elapsing in dreams, is Cillian Murphy as part of the Law Enforcement as what else? A Timekeeper!

While not rich like New Greenwich, nevertheless by keeping the system as is the Timekeeper can live as long as the Rich do, fifty 25-year cycles and more – eventually this method of sustaining his duration will save Timberlake’s and Seyfried’s characters.

The acting and the sub-plots are intricately meshed, so while using many tried and tested themes, nevertheless the mixture creates a new perspective which makes you truly sit back and think!

Decades ago, the poet Shelley considered time in a poem giving tribute to a wind-worn statue dissolving slowly in the desert… It is equally appropriate here;-

” I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”