The premise is fascinating. Instead of currency, individuals are allotted certain amounts of time which they can exchange for goods or transfer to others as payment. To earn more time you work a job or do other tasks. When your time runs out, you die. Effectively, the film directly commodifies time and these must ask interesting questions of capitalist society and the trade-off between time and money.
It seems unlikely, however, that I will actually watch the film. Rotten Tomatoes is panning the film and once again we have an example of a fascinating metaphysical premise destroyed by inept Hollywood production. It is hard to forgive such a ridiculous result when films like Inception set the bar for smart thinking and smart film making.
We do seem to be more forgiving when literature undermines a good plot-line however. Look at the dystopian fiction of Huxley (an arguably similar genre to In Time) or others: poor writing is forgotten while the fear created by the premise remains.
I am at least satisfied that poor film-making is not easily forgiven, I just wish they had spent more time crafting the piece than crafting the idea.
-The English Student
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