The concept intrigued me immediately, as Niccol's concepts tend to do, and by now it is clear that audiences on this one are going to be divided in those who love the idea and those too turned off by the heavy-handedness of the message. The concept is time is money--literally. The message is that the rich 1% gain immortality off of the very brief and stressful lives of hundreds of thousands of poor. It's hard to watch this movie without Occupy Wall Street in mind.
Future generations removed from that context may have a lot more fun with it, in how the story is realized. Because it is in the way the characters think and deal with issues of time that this movie really flows, and Niccol handles it well. Phrases such as, "Don't waste my time," "We don't have time to just stand around," prostitutes: "I'll give you ten minutes if you give me an hour," waitresses, "You're not from around here, you're in too much of a hurry"... even stock quotes from movies rendered with a whole new meaning--that's where a lot of the beauty of this movie is.
Part of the issue is that Niccol didn't spend a whole lot of time on the type of background detail that would fill out an equivalent science fiction production like, say, _Soylent Green._ (I mean that pun about him not spending time, by the way. In places you can tell this movie's budget was spread really thin). Since there are no garbage men to pick up the bodies (say, for the pay of an hour per body), or traffic jam riots, or things like that, most of the realization of the concept of time is in the direct dialog and conflict of the characters. The dialog is a little audacious--in a way that's going to turn some audiences right off, whereas I think it was pretty wonderful, even in the places it got cheesy. There are a couple-few lines that are, however, completely groan-worthy: "Do you even know HOW to drive?" (Chicka, homeboy's just been driving for the last half-scene or so, so yes). Expect lines like those as fodder for those who couldn't stomach the more political ham-fistedness of the film.
Because, yeah, this movie is heavy-handed, in a way that is sort of disappointing considering Niccol's work on movies like Gattaca and The Truman Show. I think he gets kudos for embracing his concepts seriously, but could stand to work on his subtlety. So okay, Will's character and Weis' character are at opposing ends of the rich aristocrat social Darwinist/poor socially conscious hero dynamic. The two heroes are essentially Bonnie and Clyde in Logan's Run-land. That's fine. I think the biggest issue is that the "system" described isn't filled out enough for us to know how it's supposed to break down, and that the situations like the "Minutemen" and "Timekeepers" being entirely self-aware of their complicity in the system does not fit a verisimilitude with the mafias and police officers they stand in for.
Otherwise who cares? The movie still makes you think about things like whether the time you spend working is worth the time you gain from it, what the "cost of living" really is, and if the increased danger of death is worth the time saved by speeding--common-day questions rendered strictly of essence in this movie, showcased by common idioms turned significantly important to daily lives.
So all in all, good movie, potentially crippled by being a little too topical and a little less than subtle.
--PolarisDiB
Future generations removed from that context may have a lot more fun with it, in how the story is realized. Because it is in the way the characters think and deal with issues of time that this movie really flows, and Niccol handles it well. Phrases such as, "Don't waste my time," "We don't have time to just stand around," prostitutes: "I'll give you ten minutes if you give me an hour," waitresses, "You're not from around here, you're in too much of a hurry"... even stock quotes from movies rendered with a whole new meaning--that's where a lot of the beauty of this movie is.
Part of the issue is that Niccol didn't spend a whole lot of time on the type of background detail that would fill out an equivalent science fiction production like, say, _Soylent Green._ (I mean that pun about him not spending time, by the way. In places you can tell this movie's budget was spread really thin). Since there are no garbage men to pick up the bodies (say, for the pay of an hour per body), or traffic jam riots, or things like that, most of the realization of the concept of time is in the direct dialog and conflict of the characters. The dialog is a little audacious--in a way that's going to turn some audiences right off, whereas I think it was pretty wonderful, even in the places it got cheesy. There are a couple-few lines that are, however, completely groan-worthy: "Do you even know HOW to drive?" (Chicka, homeboy's just been driving for the last half-scene or so, so yes). Expect lines like those as fodder for those who couldn't stomach the more political ham-fistedness of the film.
Because, yeah, this movie is heavy-handed, in a way that is sort of disappointing considering Niccol's work on movies like Gattaca and The Truman Show. I think he gets kudos for embracing his concepts seriously, but could stand to work on his subtlety. So okay, Will's character and Weis' character are at opposing ends of the rich aristocrat social Darwinist/poor socially conscious hero dynamic. The two heroes are essentially Bonnie and Clyde in Logan's Run-land. That's fine. I think the biggest issue is that the "system" described isn't filled out enough for us to know how it's supposed to break down, and that the situations like the "Minutemen" and "Timekeepers" being entirely self-aware of their complicity in the system does not fit a verisimilitude with the mafias and police officers they stand in for.
Otherwise who cares? The movie still makes you think about things like whether the time you spend working is worth the time you gain from it, what the "cost of living" really is, and if the increased danger of death is worth the time saved by speeding--common-day questions rendered strictly of essence in this movie, showcased by common idioms turned significantly important to daily lives.
So all in all, good movie, potentially crippled by being a little too topical and a little less than subtle.
--PolarisDiB