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TIMECRIMES, the first feature length film from Oscar-nominated Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo (7:35 in the Morning), was released a mere three months ago, and yet word is, it’s already going to be remade by David Cronenberg. Winner of the Best First Feature (Silver) prize at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival and the Next Wave Award at the Austin FantasticFest, TIMECRIMES is a fun little movie about the pitfalls of curiosity and the inevitable dangers of playing with the past.
Hector and his wife have just bought a beautiful new house in the country. Though they seem fairly happy together, Hector has a bit of a roving eye, and one evening, while looking through binoculars in their backyard, he spots an attractive woman undressing in the woods and decides to investigate while the missus is out. With some difficulty, he finds the young girl, who is now lying unconscious on a rock. But before he has a chance to react, Hector is stabbed with a pair of scissors by a mysterious man wearing a pink bandage across his face who chases him through the woods to a nearby scientific research facility. Hector runs inside and is convinced by startled young scientist to climb into a bizarre contraption and hide there until his pursuer has gone. When he finally gets out of the machine, he finds he has travelled one hour into the past, back to before he’d spotted the girl. His first instinct is to return to the house, but the scientist explains that there are now two Hectors in this present, and he must wait until Hector 1 gets into the time machine before he makes any move that could alter the course of history. Predictably, Hector 2 doesn’t listen to this rather sound advice, and things get a little more complicated.
Although we’ve all seen this theme played out over and over again, TIMECRIMES is suspenseful enough to keep you guessing and entertaining enough to excuse a few minor lapses in logic. The cast is fantastic and the structure of the film is highly original, which is quite a feat in itself, given the familiar subject matter. It’s a great, exciting story, and while I’ve railed against cheap moralizing in movies in the past, I couldn’t help but feel that the ending was a bit empty, largely due to my desire to see Hector pay for his hubris. Traditionally, we have to pay when we play with God’s laws, and while I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy seeing Hector clumsily try to squirm out of his predicament, I was disappointed that he ultimately gets away with it and couldn’t help but wonder, “then why did I just watch this?” Nevertheless, TIMECRIMES is well worth watching (and remaking, I suppose), since the trip is often more rewarding than the destination – even if it’s back in time, apparently.
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