Time Crimes

It's very hard to review "Los cronocrímenes" without spoiling the fun of watching the movie and seeing how the different stories within the main plot outline keep unraveling ever so intelligently. Let's just say that it all starts out with a man watching through his binoculars and spotting something that catches his eye. He follows his curiosity, and that will be the start of some extremely unusual, mysterious, and intriguing events involving this man, a mysterious stalker with his head wrapped in a pink bandage, a naked girl in the woods, and a young scientist.

"Los cronocrímenes" is a terrific movie, one that was made with a low budget, a reduced cast, and very few settings. It combines sci-fi/fantasy, mystery, action, and also sprinkles of comedy -I found myself laughing out loud more than once while watching this. It's a twisted, tragic, cynical sense of humor that I find very fitted to the Spanish way of being and general look on life.

You may enjoy "Los cronocrímenes" for what it is, taking it at face value, and enjoying the twists and turns (and even if you think you've got it figured out, it keeps the ability to surprise you all along). You may also take a deeper look into it. Each viewer sees a different story and message in a movie; for me, personally, besides an extremely entertaining and thoughtful mystery and action movie, "Los cronocrímenes" offers good insight into the human soul, our deepest and darkest motivations for things, and how the line between good and evil is ever so blurry.

"Timecrimes" was a movie I almost didn't see. It seemed interesting, but since "Primer" I wasn't sure if I wanted to wrap my mind around another time travel movie. The director, Nacho Vigalondo told us this was his world premiere and he was very nervous giving his introduction. After about 90 minutes, I realized my second movie at Fantastic Fest 2007 may be the best one I see all week. "Timecrimes" was an engaging movie that is easy to follow, despite it's complex plot. I would hate to give away even the smallest of details, the title says everything you need to know. Even though I felt like I was in the driver's seat the whole movie, there were still surprises throughout that kept things interesting until the closing credits. The journey taken by Hector (Karra Elejalde) develops his character beautifully, and he is complimented by a small and effective cast. It would be a crime if this movie doesn't get the distribution it deserves. The Q&A afterward revealed some interesting behind the scenes stories and some info that made me want to see the movie again. Fortunately the buzz from our half full screening was enough to sell out the second screening at the festival. The film won Best Picture at Fantastic Fest 2007, was the Silver Medal winner for Audience Favorite, and was the highest rated film at the festival. If you get a chance to see this movie, DO IT!!

***UPDATE*** "Timecrimes" has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures.

One of the common issues with time-travel movies is that they are filled with holes in the story, things that you never get to know how happened or why they did happened in the first place.

This movie is perfect in that sense, the plot is squared and every small detail has a meaningful reason to exist so in a way is mathematically perfect.. Which leaves you with a rewarding feeling but on the other hand if you understand the plot you can solve the mystery 3/4 down the movie and the last minutes are just obvious.

But this is a great movie.. Thats why it leaves you wondering what would it had been if the plot were more ambitious and more factors had been involved in the equation. Perhaps more characters and more interaction between them.. Who knows! You just want more!

Original and ingeniously basic Sci-Fi premise full of suspense and intrigue .This freaky and clever film chronicles fear, suspicion,desperation, paranoia of a person named Hector ( Karra Elejalde) , he is a middle-aged ordinary man who has just moved to a lonely house with his wife Clara (Candela Fernández). Hector watches that he believes to be a naked girl in the forest . He decides to go there just to find that same girl (Bárbara Goenaga) laying on a rock. Later on , he finds a stranger (Nacho Vigalondo) in a Kafkaesque room presided by a mysterious machine . Hector accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences . He attempts to survive the deadly trap which guard the room and takes place several twisted situations .

The picture succeeds because the thriller ,tension , plot twists , suspense, as well as a superbly written script delving into the starring paranoia in such extreme situation and his instinctive urge for survival . Despite low budget the movie manages to be intelligent, intriguing and thrilling . The good thing about this film is that the director made it on a shoestring budget only having to do a few sets , yet the movie works on many levels but is constantly reconfigured . Casting is frankly well giving fine performances , though little known with exception of the veteran Karra Elejalde . Good cinematography by Flabio Martinez Labiano , excellent cameraman of ¨Unknown , Day of Beast , Perlita Durango , 800 bullets¨ , among others ; he's Alex De La Iglesia's usual photographer. It was filmed in Solares , Cabezon De La Sal , Cantabria, Nacho Vigalondo's birthplace . This motion picture relatively cheap is tautly written and directed by Nacho Gabilondo in his first movie because he is usually writer for television and shorts filmmaker , has has only directed another film titled ¨Extraterrestre¨. This is without a doubt a thought-provoking and mysterious film to be liked for Science-Fictiona and suspense fans, turning out to be one of the most original Spanish movies of the last years .

This is a fun movie. It explores time travel in an interesting way, making one big consistent whole. While movies like Primer have more convoluted plots, this one is simpler. It explores the events within timeline in a way that menages to reinterpret them and is an interesting conceptual work. Though somewhat predictable, it still menages to be fun and thought provoking. There are not really any plot holes except that main character acts somewhat in fear of not ruining what he knows happens, at least at first, which is somewhat dubious, but the consistency is preserved. What would happen if he tried to subvert it is not explored, but still, a solid work and an unexplored angle. Less ambitious than Predestination, and at a lower budget, but delivers similar experience if in more low key way, which is sometimes sweeter, in a way small but clever films can be.