Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes)

Hi everybody!

Sorry it has taken so long to write about another film but I'm finally back and have a few films I'm planning on writing about soon, the first of these being a little gem called Timecrimes.

Timecrimes is a 2007 Spanish film written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo. It deals with time travel and the paradoxes that can be created when things go wrong. Please bear with me as some of the story might be difficult to explain.

The film begins with the main character Hector (Karra Elejalde) relaxing in his garden. He is sitting in his deck chair with binoculars looking at the woods nearby. His wife (Candela Fernandez) has just finished building a coffee table in the garden and asks if Hector can drive into town to buy groceries. Hector bets his wife that she won't be able to fit the coffee table through the door to the house and if she does, then he will do the groceries. She loses the bet so drives into town.

Hector relaxes and begins to look at the woods again through his binoculars. He sees a woman in the woods beginning to undress, so curious, he decides to go into the woods to investigate. He finds the woman lying unconscious with no clothes on and as he gets closer to her, he is attacked by a man in a long coat with bandages covering his face. The man stabs him in the arm with a pair of scissors but he manages to run away.

Hector stumbles upon a house in the woods. Finding that there is no one there, he breaks in. He finds some first aid and a walkie talkie in one of the rooms. He speaks into the walkie talkie and a man replies. He tells the man about his attacker and is told by the man that his attacker is approaching and that he should leave the house and follow the road to his location. Hector follows the man's instructions and makes it to a building at the top of the road.

The man lets Hector into the building and he see's that he is in a lab with a large spherical contraption in the centre of the room with liquid in it. The man tells him to hide in the sphere while he tries to get rid of the attacker. The sphere closes over him and when it re-opens, he finds that he has went back in time one hour.

The man who had let him into the room is totally stunned that Hector has just appeared in the sphere and astounded that the device has finally worked. When hector leaves the building he looks through his binoculars to see his past self still sitting in the garden with his wife.

The man takes Hector back to the house to explain to him the dangers of time travel. He says that in order for his life to return to normal, the best thing to do is stay where he is and let his past self make his way to the time machine un-interrupted or else he could disrupt the flow of time and his present self would cease to exist. The man leaves Hector in the house and warns him not to leave the room or try and contact anybody.

Unfortunately Hector doesn't listen to the man's warnings and slowly realises that he only went into the time machine in the first place because of a chain of events put in place by his future self to try and rectify mistakes that he hasn't done yet!

Did any of that make sense? Unfortunately this is not a particularly easy film to describe. Also I don't really want to go too much into the story and ruin the plot for you.

This is a film that is very cleverly written and can be really confusing if you don't commit yourself to the story 100%. Everything that is in the film, even things that don't seem important to start with, have a reason for being there and are important to the story. You'll find that you will keep casting your mind back to earlier events as they start to reveal themselves later on in the film. This gives the film plenty of life with repeat viewings as you may notice things in different sittings.

If you like a film that will make you think (even if it does give you a headache haha) then this is the film for you! Also prepare to get completely drawn in by the story and it's complexities involving time travel paradoxes and then getting your mind in a twist by thinking too much in depth about "cause and effect" and other complex scientific terms......... In fact, that may just be me!!!!!!!!!

I usually like to put in a bit of history or a backstory to a film I write about but in this case, there isn't much to say. Only that Hollywood is planning an English languae remake (as per usual), and that the director is making a new alien invasion film called "Extraterrestre". As Wikipedia states, "Vigalondo writes that this will not be like a War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise, where a regular person manages to somehow closely witness all major invasion events. He writes that most people will experience a global alien invasion without even knowing it has happened, by listening to rumors, or engaging in pointless activities. Hence Extraterrestre." It sounds quite interesting to me!

I hope some of you enjoyed what I had to write and possibly feel compelled to watch this film as it really is a rewarding experience, as a film should really make you think and not completely take you for an idiot!

Thanks for reading I really enjoyed myself with this one! Please if you have time and you haven't already, join up. And also I would love to see some comments and get a little conversastion going!

The next film will be "The House On the Edge Of The Park" by Ruggero Deodato.

Take care!

Michael :)