NEW Zealand-born screenwriter Andrew Niccol has consistently conjured dark clouds with his dystopian visions of life in the 21st century and beyond.

His debut feature Gattaca starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman cast a chill with its depiction of a society determined by genetic superiority.

Niccol deservedly won an Oscar for his script for The Truman Show, which took the concept of a Big Brother reality TV series to chilling extremes, and then he suggested that troublesome Hollywood stars could be replaced by digital actors in the comedy S1m0ne.

For his latest film, which he also directs, Niccol imagines an emotionally-starved globe in which money has become obsolete and the currency is time.

People are engineered to age until they reach 25 years old, then a timer, embedded in their arm, begins to tick down second by second to their demise.

You can earn, steal or inherit more time to extend your life expectancy, leading to a vast divide between the haves and have-nots.

Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) lives in the ghetto with his mother (Olivia Wilde), making ends meet by working at a factory with his best friend Borel (Johnny Galecki).

During a night out, Will has a chance encounter with handsome yet suicidal rich man Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer), who donates 100 years of his time to Will's body clock.

Granted access to the most exclusive parts of the city, Will learns the truth about how Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser) and the men in power manipulate the populace.

Will vows to bring down the corrupt system forging an unlikely alliance with Philippe’s rebellious daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried).

In Time is a neat concept, stylishly executed, with some well-orchestrated action sequences to paper over a few cracks in Niccol’s logic.

STAR RATING: ***