Underrated: IN TIME - Fritter And Waste The Hours In An Offhand Way...

As Rolling Stone's venerable senior film critic Peter Travers once pointed out: critics can be asses. Gattaca and Lord of War writer-director Andrew Niccol's In Time was in and out of theaters so fast that I had no chance to catch it until recently. What the hell is wrong with people? (That's a rhetorical question, and the easy answer is: "Dude, so, so much!") The film has a 37% rating on RottenTomatoes.com, ("rotten") and only a slightly-better rating on Metacritic: 53 (the "yellow-zone"). So to reiterate: critics can be - and mostly are - asses. Even when viewed within the narrow margins of the "genre film," In Time is clever, fun and impeccably shot.

So here's my freakin' two cents: it's an entertaining, slightly-silly futuristic take on Bonnie & Clyde. How did the reviewers miss this? Even Roger Ebert's essentially positive take on the film missed the clear parallels to Arthur Penn's great 60's crime flick. Maybe the wonky sci-fi elements - sleek and elegant in Niccol's great Gattaca, somewhat clunky and incongruous here - threw people off. The opening monologue sets up the world: people are genetically engineered to stop aging at age 25, but they died a year later. They can borrow, bargain, steal or work for more time, but their ticking clock is ever-present, in the form of big green numbers counting down on their forearm.

Will Salas (Justin Timberlake, in another strong - if less demanding - performance after his impressive turn in The Social Network), is "25 plus 3," and lives with his 50-year old mother (Olivia Wilde, still young-looking and sexy) while working a dead-end factory job in a Los Angeles ghetto. The time period is vague - it's one of the main (and valid) complaints in most reviews: is this really the future? Everything seems fairly contemporary, from the clothing and furniture to the slightly-altered muscle car the Bad Guy drives. I actually think the film is set in a parallel universe... the opening narration does not explain how or why humans have this in-grown ticking clock, and Niccol wisely never tries.

While drinking with possibly his only friend Borel (The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki, playing a slovenly scumbag like only he can), Will meets Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer), a rich guy slumming it in the ghetto. Will saves him from almost certain death at the hands of a couple of prostitutes and then from the street-trawling Minute Men, dapper gangsters who corner timid slum-dwellers and drain all the time they can. Henry has been 25 for far too long, and wants nothing more than an end. As Will sleeps, Henry transfers his remaining years - over a century - to Will. The transfer process seems to consist of grabbing the others wrists, turning them slightly, and time transfers over. How, exactly? The process doesn't seem physiologically possible, but if you're willing to swallow the premise, this should go down easy.

There is something about film which puts people off - maybe the tone, which is in line with Niccol's usual somewhat antiseptic style. The whole film is somewhat distant and chilly, and even the marvelous cinematography by Roger Deakins gives off a chill, unusual for this great, Oscar-winning DP. Niccol and Deakins make fascinating use of the Los Angeles locations, which exude a distinctly-SoCal aura of urban decay.

I can see how plenty of audience members could be confused - the whole thing suddenly shifts halfway through. Will spends years of Henry's gift of time just getting through the different "Time Zones" which separate the classes. This layout and system is never explained - nor are we given any overall sense of organization or government of this apparently parallel reality. Not that we really need it, but some kind of overview would have helped to orient the audience. By the time Will meets Sylvia Reis (Big Love's Amanda Seyfried), the lovely and beguiling daughter of mega-rich Phillipe Reis (Mad Men's suave little SOB Vincent Kartheiser, effortlessly owning his scenes and proving that he'll be a welcome presence in features). Phillipe has been 25 for over eight decades and may (or may not) possess a legendary amount of years... and his name seems to be on every building in Will's ghetto.

The first half of the film sets up the rules of this world (albeit a little too vaguely, as I've mentioned), and the second half takes off in a new direction, with Will and Sylvia on the run and Cillian Murphy's cold-eyed Timekeeper on their heels. The eternal-youth and time-as-currency themes are all-too-relevant in this era of faster-faster-now-now-hurry-hurry... this is a time where we get agitated if our internet browser takes too long to load our porn - I mean, our local news website. I wonder if Niccol has a director's cut hidden up his sleeve which fleshes out the overall world a little more. Even if we don't see that film, the one we have is worth checking - it's fun, clever and thought-provoking.