Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes)
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Screenplay: Nacho Vigalondo
Starring: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Bárbera Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo
Year: 2007
Language: Spanish
UK rental release date: May 2009
The New Year is nearly upon us, and it's time for us all to have a fresh start. The New Year is nearly upon us and it's time for us all to have a fresh start. Wait...hang on...I'm in a loop. Well, if that's the case there's only one thing for it. I'll begin this review anew then with yet another time travel movie, which is all about fresh starts. I'll begin this review afresh then with...
Hector (Karra Elejalde, Even The Rain, La Madre Muerta) is taking a nice relaxing break in the Spanish countryside with his loving wife, Clara (Candela Fernández), keeping himself to himself. Everything is perfect until he decides to relax in the garden. As soon as he's sat, something catches his eye. Grabbing his binoculars he gets the glimpse of a woman removing her clothing in the distance.
His intrigue gets the better of him, as he decides to investigate further. He takes a walk towards the woman's house to get a closer look but on arrival he finds her lying fully naked in the grass, completely still. Unaware whether she is dead, passed out or just asleep, Hector examines her.
Moments later, on getting out of the unit he checks to see if the coast is clear. Everything seems fine, until he's startled by a familiar person. Hector sees himself in the distance, standing over the nude lady in the forest, just prior to the attack from the stranger. As strange as this all appears, he can only deduce that the box he was hiding in was in fact some kind of time machine, taking him back to his recent past.
But just his presence is a crime enough, as each of Hector's actions will now take him through the laws and regulations of time travel, and to the brink of his own sanity as he tries to repair what he may have already broken.
From the first few seconds of this film you think you are about to watch a calm drama, slowly billowing into a thriller, but instead is gets some momentum in the first few minutes and keeps it at a constant. Fearlessly, it reveals its plot early on and keeps dropping little bombs of realisation throughout as soon as the truth dawns on Hector.
The film gets away with this by the fact that Nacho Vigalondo took the courageous decision to make this a very accurate time travel story. Every factor of the "butterfly effect" created by our lead is handled some very precise consequences. It's a new approach to a film of this genre, where normally we are left with vague plot holes to illicit some thrill response and instead trusting the viewer to buy in to the obvious results of meddling with time. For example, the superb (and the always compared) Canadian thriller Primer (see review here) tries to imbue some imaginative complications by being a little ambiguous, but Time Crimes throws the book out of the window by pointing out the obvious and strictly sticking to it. A bold way of demonstrating time travel, as it could have been boring and repetitive, but it blossoms here.
You will predict some of the outcomes in Timecrimes. But this is a good thing, because the execution is flawless and the justification for each and every action, and the inevitable result every single time, strengthens the film's structure. It also merits some second viewing to see how some of this detail shines.
All of this clever design and storytelling helps to mask what is a low budget picture, estimated at about $2.5million. Whereas this is nowhere near as low as the pot provided for its North American cousin (Primer's estimated spend is nearer the $7,000 mark) it's still a visually impressive piece on such tight funds. Using plenty of natural lighting when it suits, there's real depth and tone to a lot of the imagery, especially when considering the different angles and perspectives taken on the same scenes when entering that a ta different point in Hector's time line. This overall visual template acts a nice glue when piecing the different pieces together.
Another area that may have helped keep the finances down was on the casting choices. There's a very small amount of actors on this film, with even the director playing the mysterious scientist in the research building. However, whether this is a budget decision or not, the small cast is perfect for the story. Too many characters could have taken it into the complicated territory, plus the performances from the the cast, including Vigalondo, are very strong and especially from the lead, Karra Elejalde. Only really known for his work in Spanish cinema, he is a reliable actor and takes to this part with ease. He is instantly likeable and you can't help but want him to succeed in his mission, a feat achieved purely by Elejalde as another performer could have easily turned this four-dimensional role into a one-dimensional one.
Nacho Vigalondo has taken the reins, even casting himself, of an excellent debut feature film that completely shakes up the conventional time-travelling movie. A simple theme, a direct attack on the story, and with good continual pace from the moment of Hector's first discovery, Timecrimes is a unique piece of world cinema that will have you hooked from the start all the way to it's satisfying ending. And, thanks to it's no-frills, blunt attitude to time science, you don't need to be Dr. Emmett Brown to understand it!
Don't forget to leave comments below, tweet me @filmbore or post on my Facebook page here.
No comments:
Post a Comment