Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Time Is Up’ On Amazon, Where Bella Thorne & Her Real Life Fiancé Star As Angsty Teen Lovers

In Time Is Up, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, real-life couple Bella Thorne and Benjamin Mascolo star as a dedicated physics student and a bad boy swimmer who find themselves unexpectedly falling for one another after her uptight boyfriend neglects her. Set in an unidentified suburbia and romantic Rome, Italy, Time Is Up wants to show us that it’s never too late to learn to live life to its fullest. (I think?). 

TIME IS UP: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Vivien (Bella Thorne) is “serene”. Happiness is overrated, after all. She’s got a nice enough boyfriend, Steve (Sebastiano Pigazzi), a star swimmer, a supportive best friend (Bonnie Baddoo) by her side, and loving parents who seem to only want the best for her (even if her dad is traveling a lot more than usual). Vivien’s got a passion for physics, and she’s currently studying for a big exam that will potentially make or break her college future. Roy (Benjamin Mascolo), one of Steve’s swim teammates, meanwhile, struggles to keep his focus in the pool, thoughts of his late mother and his tumultuous relationship with his father swirling around in his head. They’re preparing for a big swim meet in Rome that’s now two weeks away, after which Roy might know what his future holds, and Steve promises to be a more attentive boyfriend to Vivien.

In the weeks leading up to the meet, a lot happens; Vivien realizes her parents’ marriage isn’t as happy as she thought, and she flakes on her big exam, too stressed and frazzled by revelations about her parents to take it. Her relationship with Steve only becomes more strained, and when he doesn’t show up to a Halloween party, she unexpectedly bonds with Roy – but only for a moment before he bails to keep training for the swim meet. In an effort to revive her relationship with Steve, she flies to Rome during the meet to surprise him. When she can’t find him at the hotel, however, she ends up spending the day with Roy, who is happy to show her his native Italy. Sparks fly between the two as they grow closer, but with secrets poised to be revealed at any moment and the future at stake, their happiness together may be short-lived.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Time Is Up might remind you a bit of the After movies, The Kissing Booth, and alllllll the other bad teen movies with ridiculously soapy twists and turns out there.

Performance Worth Watching: Gotta give this one to Rome. (Yes, the city in Italy.) It is the only thing worth watching in this movie.

Memorable Dialogue: There are a lot of lines in Time Is Up that are totally nonsensical or just unintentionally funny, but “Are you serious? The day I almost died, you can’t remember what I was wearing?” might take the cake.

Sex and Skin: Some sexy pool fantasies, under-the-covers masturbating, and some hazy, cut-to-black stripping down and sex.

Our Take: Time Is Up is one of those movies that gets a little more silly every time it tries to be serious. From its faux-profound physics-related opening and closing narration to dramatic confrontations with little-to-no actual stakes, it’s honestly hard to tell what’s going on in this movie at all. This is probably the least of the film’s sins, but the title is incredibly vague and means almost nothing in relation to the film’s story, and the message at the heart is also unclear. Who are these people, and what’s really at stake here? Why is everything so dramatic? And *what* is this big test she’s taking? We’re given such little information about anything that the stakes are never appropriately raised, leaving us with a strangely wooden and unemotional viewing experience (despite the film’s attempts to tell us just how IMPORTANT these things are).

With a nonsensical script, stilted, self-serious dialogue, and robotic performances, Time Is Up doesn’t really make any case for itself. Even some of the shots of Rome feel cheap, which is sad, because it’s obviously one of the most beautiful places in the world. Maybe it was fun for Bella Thorne and Benjamin Mascolo to love it up on screen in a way that’s usually reserved for our Instagram feeds? I’m glad they had a good time, at least. It’s more than I can say for any of us forced to sit through the jumbled, unimaginative mess that is Time Is Up, a movie so devoid of substance and story I wonder if calling it a “movie” is too generous.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Full of wooden performances, stilted dialogue, and a climax so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh, Time Is Up is a forgettable mess.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.

Stream Time Is Up on Amazon