Timecrimes doesn't dole out profound messages on the ontological paradox or the repercussions of messing with the time-space continuum, but it clearly doesn't intend to. Nacho Vigalondo's low-budget sci-fi may have a fraction of the budget of Hollywood giants treading the same theme, but this bang-up thriller on a man's misadventures through time manages to be more taut and clever than the most of them. When binocular-toting Hector (Karra Elejalde) spots a naked woman in the woods one afternoon in his backyard, he decides to investigate. He walks into the forest but before fully realizing what's going on, he's stabbed in the arm by a man whose face is covered in pink bandages. Hector tries to elude his attacker and eventually seeks refuge in a facility, where a lab technician (Vigalondo) convinces him to hide in a strange-looking machine. The contraption turns out to be a time machine, and Hector finds himself an hour earlier, sending the plot into a zippy mindf*ck that keeps the elaborate proceedings so tight that the cracks hardly show. While Timecrimes sometimes stumble into predictable twists, Vigalondo contents himself with constructing engagingly taut labyrinth that culminates in a clever ending presaged by the mess shown just after the opening sequence.
Review of Timecrimes
