If a phenomenal concept was always guaranteed to yield a movie to match, then we wouldn’t have to suffer through so many wastes of cinematic potential on an annual basis. It’s been a dozen years since the film was first released, though, and Andrew Niccol’s In Time still sticks out as one of the worst modern offenders.
Having written and directed the unsung minor classic Gattaca, scooped an Oscar nomination for writing the mind-blowing The Truman Show, and then found decent success with Nicolas Cage action thriller Lord of War, the evidence was there to suggest that a high concept sci-fi blockbuster with a fascinating central conceit was capable of greatness.
Taking place in a world where time is literally money – which renders the elite virtually immortal while the working classes are literally living day-to-day on borrowed existence – Justin Timberlake is handed the deal of a lifetime by a dying man, only to instantly run into trouble after being branded as a criminal and fugitive.
In Time pops on a visual level, but it doesn’t come close to mining the depths of its thematic core to a satisfying extent, leading to tepid reviews from critics and audience alike. It did earn close to $175 million at the box office, and has proven to be a popular performer on streaming, but a brand new audience is on the way to realizing that it could have been so much more.
Per FlixPatrol, In Time has stopped the clock on the Disney Plus charts, with the 20th Century Fox production snaking its way onto the watch-list of Mouse House customers everywhere.