Justin Timberlake’s star has been rising over the past few years. Ever since his solo music career took off, he has been appearing on television shows and, most recently, venturing into movies.
So far, he has made a mark for his comedic work on shows like “Saturday Night Live” and movies such as the recently-released “Friends with Benefits,” where he did a stellar job with his co-star Mila Kunis in showing a modern relationship that negates emotions from sex. But can he carry a drama on his own? Sure, he had a supporting role in “The Social Network,” but that doesn’t show us whether he has what it takes to star in a drama — and a sci-fi drama at that.
From director Andrew Niccol (of “Gattaca” and “Lord of War” fame) comes “In Time,” a sci-fi action drama that focuses on an alternate future where you stop aging at 25 and once you pass that age, you only have one year left to live — unless you can earn, buy or steal more time. In a place where time is money (literally), a 28-year-old man, Will Salas (Timberlake), is working as hard as he can just to live from day-to-day and earn more time. A twist of fate has him encounter and help a mysterious stranger (Matt Bomer), who happens to have more than a century of time left on his life clock. The stranger gives him all of his time. Now rich beyond belief, Will becomes the target of thieves and murders who are out to steal his time.
Thrust into a new life of high society where everyone is rich, fate once again intervenes and he meets Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) — the daughter of corrupt kingpin Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). Will is now looking for a way to destroy this hierarchy of a society of people who have more time than they are supposed to. Can this common man expose this corrupt group, or will he run out of time?
This nearly four-minute long trailer debuted at Comic-Con this year and those of us lucky enough to be there were surprised by Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, who were on hand to discuss the film and their involvement. Timberlake started off by saying he was a huge fan of “Gattaca” and when he got the call about the film, he was eager to learn more. He also said that he loved action movies such as “Die Hard” and “The Fugative,” where everyday men get put into extraordinary circumstances and then rise to achieve great things. Seyfried talked about the massive amount of action in the film and how their characters were constantly on the run in the film and how the pace of the film is constant and never slows.
Both Timberlake and Seyfried seemed to have great chemistry together while talking about the film and also showed a lot of enthusiasm for the story. Because of the footage I saw and what they said, I am actually getting excited for this film. Timberlake also talked about the very detailed vision director Andrew Niccol had for the characters, story and the world they live in and that it made working on the film that much easier because he knew exactly what he wanted out of each of their performances.
The story itself reminds me of “Logan’s Run,” but instead of running because you have no time, they are running because he has too much time and others want to take it from him. Some co-stars in the film include Johnny Galecki, Cillian Murphy and Alex Pettyfer. That list, along with Olivia Wilde, is more than enough talent in a single film to get me to go see the movie.
“In Time” will hit theaters Oct. 28. Will you take the time to go see it?
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