In a future where the aging gene is blocked at 25, time has become the ultimate currency. An era has dawned where the world is divided into time zones, demarcating the powerful elite from the impoverished. It’s a time when the “poor die” for lack of earning enough time for another day of life, “and the rich don’t live,” constantly fearing for their physical well-being and surrounding themselves with bodyguards. Will Salas (Timberlake) lives one day at a time. Literally – his clock never shows more than 24 hours. After saving a wealthy man from bandits, he’s gifted 116 years, only to be framed for murder. Fleeing, he takes Sylvia Weis (Seyfried) hostage.
Andrew Niccol unveils an impressive, yet far from wonderful, world. Moreover, it’s not entirely novel – drawing parallels, it feels like a carbon copy of modern society, seasoned with futuristic flair. However, the core concept of the screenplay is undoubtedly high concept. Yet, its execution falls short of expectations.
A Race Against Time, But Towards What?
The director propels the plot forward at full speed, navigating between his own “Gattaca” and Andrew Davis’ “The Fugitive,” occasionally encountering Miguel Sapochnik’s “Repo Men” along the way, but never quite making any of the turns. It seems he himself is unsure of the message he wants to convey to the audience: whether the existing state of affairs has proven its viability and is therefore justified, or whether it is ethically immoral to force millions to work and sacrifice their lives for the well-being of a select few. Despite the apparent clarity of the final scenes, there’s no definitive answer.
The Value of a Day
Ultimately, we return to where we began – even something as small as a single day is of immense value. Whether it was worth disrupting the global economic system to declare this assertion is for the viewer to decide, and decisions, as we know, always come at a price – at least 109 minutes of one’s own life.