Never Enough Time

We are about to step into our imaginations for a moment. Picture with me a moment in time. It is your 25th birthday, this is the oldest you will ever look, and you won’t die unless you do something extremely stupid. And I just realized that at 25 many of us were still doing extremely stupid things so that one is a bit harder to imagine.

Maybe I need some better imaginative journeys. But (and this is the lead in we have been waiting for) this is the concept of the movie “In Time” (2011 directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, among many others). The movie plays on a different version of the dystopia theme by making people work for the seconds and minutes of their life that will keep them alive. For those who have the means, life will go on forever and you will always have the beauty of youth.

When you really think about it, the concept itself leans a bit on the horror side. Sure there isn’t the blood and guts we expect in a splatterpunk but the elements of horror are there. People reach a point where they are afraid to do anything aside from simply existing. They have all this youth, all this life, and one misstep and its all gone, washed away in the tide of a wrong decision. You aren’t really alive if you never really live.

But I digress…

I want to talk about the various elements of the story, but I also don’t want to give up too much of the whole thing and you know, issue spoilers and what not. But really, the movie has been out since 2011 so I assume that if you had wanted to see it before now, you probably already did. So I will try not to get to spoilery but I guarantee nothing.

Off hand I can’t think of the number of times I have watched this one right now. I do gain a little something new from each viewing though so it is even worth a rewatch from time to time.

One of the first things that came to mind when I saw it was the idea of Bonnie and Clyde. I confess, I don’t really know the history of Bonnie and Clyde other than to say that I know for sure they were bank robbers during the depression (or something along those lines), a husband and wife time or at least a couple that worked together to do their business of crime. That element is represented quite well in here, though it is as a couple and not as husband and wife. Hey, if Bonnie and Clyde weren’t married, I don’t know if it matters all that much in this context and I am not going to go searching through Wikipedia to find out. It just happens to be an aspect of the movie that stood out to me and one that added to that enjoyment factor.

Which brings to mind something else. Many times we claim we are looking for something new. But really what it ends up being is that we want something almost but not quite entirely like what we have had before. So when we see elements like this reference and others in a movie it is something that can add to or detract from our enjoyment. I admit it, I enjoy the gangster type crime stories so this was a big bonus for me. Whether or not I can remember the exact story or even the elements of the story, the reference itself is one of those things that sparks the happy meter for me.

Which sparks and interesting thought for me. As I am sitting here writing this, I have the DVD case next to me. On the cover of the case is the title to the movie, and in small text the caption “Daringly original. Thrilling.” I sit here amazed. Let’s take a moment to let that sink in after reading all I just went through about Bonnie and Clyde.

Okay, Deep breath. And release.

See now here’s the thing. When you break it all down, there are so many elements to this movie that can be traced back to other stories. The thing of it is, you can do that with pretty much every other story out there. The question you ask yourself, whether consciously or not, is are you willing to let yourself forget all the connections for the time it takes to enjoy the movie?

Wow, so that just happened. We started out talking about the movie and went off on a tangent that sort of relates but can be taken in context with so much else as well. As it stands, I enjoyed the story. For me, the various elements fit in perfectly with the storyline and gave me an added bonus when I picked up on them.

I dare say that essentially what happened in this was a study of the various gangster lore and an update to a future setting. At the same time there was even a bit of the idea of Robin Hood but that is just one more element of the storyline that I don’t know that we have the time to get into right now.

Maybe I should just leave it at that. Yep, enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it. The elements at play give us a good view of a different world while still maintaining a connection to the world we live in.

***

You can support these stories at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the Patreon image. Extra stuff for different levels of support and I will be adding in more as time goes on. Thanks for your support. Or maybe a long term commitment is more than you are willing to deal with right now. If so, please drop a few bits into the tip jar. Either way, I appreciate the sentiment and it helps keep this place going.