Timecrimes

“Hector” (Karra Elejalde) is sitting idly in his new garden looking through his binoculars when he espies something odd in the woods. At a glance, it looks like something with great red eyes! Then, almost immediately, he thinks he sees a naked woman. This has to be investigated so off he goes, only to arrive and discover a body and to be stabbed by a mysterious man whose face is covered in blood-stained bandages. Who is this character? Well the scissor-wielding felon quickly heads to a remote lab in the woods where we meet “El Joven” (Nacho Vigalondo) who seems to have managed to concoct some sort of time-travelling machine and there is more than one “Hector” now doing the rounds! The young scientist is at his wits end as to what to do whilst the latest iteration of “Hector” has decided he wants to dispose of the others and use the young girl whose body started the whole thing in the first place (Bárbara Goenaga) as a lure. It’s one of those lightly comedic dramas, this, that reminded me of a “Doctor Who” series from the 1980s coupled with some quirky characters and a little naughty voyeurism! Elejalde holds it together quite entertainingly even if there are quite a few plot holes liberally sprinkled throughout - just how this all got started in the first place, for example - and it’s still quite a good fun watch that could almost be be set as a silent film to maximise the daftness of the repetitive but never quite identical scenarios as they play out. Indeed, it’s quite possible that each version of “Hector” suffers from some sort of brain-drain each time, as he definitely gets more and more dopey. It packs quite a bit into ninety minutes given it can’t have had much of a budget, so if you like your sci-fi devoid of flashy visuals and whizzy audio then you might just enjoy this. I did.

Timecrimes (2007), titled initially Los cronocrímenes, is one of the best time-travel movies available. Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, it was made in Spain and performed in Spanish. Reading English subtitles will not distract, however, as much of the movie is visual, and the pacing is not slow but methodical. The story revolves around Hector and starts at his house, which he recently moved into. He sees something in the woods behind his house and goes to investigate. He is stabbed, and while running away from the mysterious masked figure, he enters a secret lab in the neighboring field. While hiding from the masked figure, he is transported back in time one hour and makes some amazing discoveries about himself. What must he do, and what is he willing to do, to restore the life he had before his accidental time-traveling adventure? The story illustrates the complexities of time-travel and what having multiple "you"-beings in existence at once can lead to. Very entertaining and a definite "much watch."

Oh my God the time traveler in this movie is an idiot! Do as the time machine guys says and DON'T GO ANYWHERE FOR ONE HOUR. But nope, he's gotta go meddle with the timeline and create multiple versions of himself and events. I'm a sucker for time travel flicks, and for a very low budget Spanish import, it was fairly entertaining, but check out the much better "Predestination" instead if you haven't seen it.

Before I say a word about the movie itself, let me advise you that if you haven’t already seen the preview for this movie, do yourself a favor and Don’t Watch It! Never have I known a preview to give so much away, and it it is particularly heinous in this case as it is a time travel movie, with plot shifts that should be experienced in real time, so to speak. I would have been some old mad if I had watched the preview first. But on to the movie itself. This is a Spanish language movie with subtitles, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of it. It is nicely set up and cleverly done. At one point I guessed right about a little plot twist I saw coming, but there was much more I didn’t predict, which brings us back to how glad I am I didn’t watch that preview. I expect this was a low budget film and there aren’t many characters in it, so don’t expect a glitzy production with awesome special effects. It just tells the story. I did feel like Hector made a couple of really stupid decisions along the way, but I cut it some slack because without them we have a boring half-hour movie! Okay, I will stop talking about what happens so as not to possibly give anything away. If you like time travel stories as I do, and are intrigued by the anomalies and problems such fictional activity can cause, give this movie a try.

Timecrimes is a simple yet clever sci-fi thriller that makes the most of its small-scale production. Most of the movie takes place in just three locations—the house, the woods, and the lab with the time machine—but it never feels limited. Instead, the confined setting adds to the intensity and focus of the story. The acting was solid. It wasn’t flashy or overly dramatic, but it felt natural and believable, which kept me invested. The plot is straightforward enough to follow, but it still manages to surprise you. It’s one of those movies where everything clicks into place by the time it wraps up, making the rewatchability high. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Timecrimes proves you don’t need a big budget or flashy effects to deliver a compelling and fun story. It’s smart, engaging, and worth a watch if you like time-travel twists.