Timecrimes – Movie Review
- Directed by Nacho Vigalondo
- Starring Karra Elejalse, Candela Fernandez, Barbara Goenaga and Nacho Vigalondo
I’d heard nothing but good things about this film, and I can happily report that the stories are all true; it’s a great little flick. The film moves along briskly, building its’ little puzzle around the bored Hector (Elejalse) and his curiosity at the happenings in the woods adjacent to his vacation home.
Hector brings home an assortment of groceries and household items to his wife Clara (Fernandez), who is busying herself in the garden. He heads upstairs to try and catch a nap, but finds himself restless and unable to sleep. He answers a strange phone call, where the caller says nothing, odd since no one is meant to know their number. He then retires to the back yard, playing around with a set of binoculars.
Hector catches sight of a woman (Goenaga) undressing, but is interrupted by Clara on her way to the store for dinner. Once she’s left he does what any guy would theoretically do, goes to investigate and see what else he can catch a gander of. What he finds after a bit of poking around is the woman, now nude, passed out and propped up against a rock.
He tries to rouse her, tossing sticks into her general area, but is forced to move close rand try to wake her. As he reaches to touch her, he is stabbed in the right bicep with a pair of scissors by an unseen attacker. Hector flees in pain and fear, finally turning to look back and look for his attacker. What he sees is the chilling sight most associated with the film, the bloody gauze wrapped attacker in the trench coat, who brings his hands to his face in a mocking pantomime of binoculars, obviously aware that Hector is watching.
Hector makes his way through the forest, eventually encountering and jumping a fence to find a strange complex of seemingly deserted buildings, but with loud music playing inside the first one he approaches. Hector breaks a window and enters, seeking shelter from the bandaged man, noting odd things like a calendar turned backward on the wall; a strange diagram doodled on the reverse side. He cleans his wound and finds a walkie talkie, which a man answers immediately and wants to know who he is, and how he got the device.
Hector is directed to an adjacent silo by the voice on the walkie talkie, who turns out to be a scientist (Vigalondo) working alone in the facility. Hector explains the bandaged man he’s running from and the scientist urges him to get in to a large machine in the center of the room, which can be closed and hide him, agreeing to hide with him. He instead shuts it as soon as Hector climbs inside, the machine closes and forces Hector into the liquid contained within.
A flash of light later and Hector emerges from the device, greeted by a confused looking scientist. It’s now daylight outside, when previously night had fallen, and the scientist begins to barrage him with questions, all of which culminate in Hector walking outside and looking across the valley at his home, where he has just arrived home to Clara in the back yard, watering plants. He’s traveled back roughly an hour or so in time, the scientist theorizes, and takes him to the adjacent building, where he draws an example of the timeline on the back of a calendar that he turns around and pins to the wall.
What begins now is an intriguing series of moments in which earlier things now suddenly make sense and new puzzles are created, and the film truly comes into its own, as Hector desperately tries to make certain that everything plays out precisely as it did before, a plan which you just know goes completely wrong, don’t you?
I was rather impressed with this film, it manages to tell a tightly plotted story that is of course dependant on the usual time travel anomalies, so if you’re the nit-picking sort, this film isn’t for you, and neither is fun, for the most part. If you are willing to go with the basic set-up, there are a lot of layers to enjoy here, as Hector’s meddling gets more and more involved as the film goes on and he tries desperately to return things to the normal order.
I’d highly recommend checking this out, there’s a great story, hell there’s even the random addition of some boobs thrown in for no real reason, what’s not to like?
Recommended.
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Sounds interesting, I’ll need to find a copy to check it out.
It’s a fun flick, I recall all the chatter about Primer a few years ago, I’d like to check it out and see how it compares, time-travel storywise.