Movie · 2011 · Action, Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 49m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.6/10 (952.3K ratings)
Live forever or die trying.
Overview
In the not-too-distant future, the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live forever, while the rest struggle to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man who suddenly comes into a fortune of time finds himself on the run from a corrupt police force known as the "time keepers".
Ratings
Curator score: 1.6/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 2.97/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 36%
Metacritic: 53
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Andrew Niccol
Production
New Regency Pictures, Strike Entertainment
Cast
Amanda Seyfried, Justin Timberlake, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, Olivia Wilde, Matt Bomer, Johnny Galecki, Collins Pennie, Toby Hemingway, Brendan Miller, Yaya DaCosta, Alex Pettyfer, Shyloh Oostwald, Colin McGurk, Will Harris, Michael William Freeman, Jesse Lee Soffer, Aaron Perilo, Nick Lashaway, Will Peltz
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp high-concept sci-fi hook and a strong anti-capitalist premise make this easy to admire, but the movie often trades its best ideas for routine action and a blunt, undercooked thriller plot. It’s worth watching if you enjoy sleek dystopian worldbuilding and concept-first genre cinema, less so if you want the premise fully explored.
Best for
Viewers who like dystopian sci-fi with a social allegory
Fans of glossy, fast-moving action thrillers
People who can forgive a thin plot for a strong concept
Audiences interested in inequality, class, and time-as-money ideas
Skip if
You want tightly written worldbuilding and airtight logic
You’re hoping for a deep philosophical treatment of its premise
You dislike formulaic chase-and-escape plotting
You prefer character drama over concept-driven spectacle
Overview
In Time has one of those sci-fi premises that feels instantly legible and annoyingly brilliant: what if time itself were money, and the rich could quite literally live forever? That idea gives the film a clean metaphor for class inequality, and the world design does a lot of heavy lifting in the first act. The visual shorthand is effective, and the movie knows how to sell the anxiety of living minute to minute.
Worth noting
The problem is that the script rarely trusts the premise to carry the film. Once the setup is in place, it leans hard into chases, fights, and a romance that feels more functional than lived-in. The social critique is obvious and appealing, but the story resolves it in a way that feels simplified compared with the scale of the problem it introduces.
Bottom line
Still, there’s enough style and conceptual audacity here to make it an easy curiosity watch. If you’re in the mood for a sleek dystopian thriller with a strong political edge and don’t mind some clunky execution, it has just enough momentum to keep you engaged.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Jay (2★) · 8441 likes
hes justin timeberlake
lulu (3★) · 8146 likes
people stop aging at 25 sounds like something leonardo dicaprio would like
Frandi Peralta (3.5★) · 3242 likes
I think I'm the only person on letterboxd that likes this movie 😔
Logan Kenny (4★) · 3206 likes
this movie made me a communist when I was 10.
👽hayley👽 (2★) · 2507 likes
these stars do not go to this movie they go to cillian murphy's cheekbones and cillian murphy's cheekbones only
2005 · Action, Thriller, Science Fiction · 2h 16m · PG-13 · Curator 1.6/10 (480.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Another glossy dystopian chase film about bodies, privilege, and the exploitation of life itself.