Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes)

Watched this interesting little film last night and was rather taken with it. It was Spanish but subtitled in English (well, mostly English. Some of the subtitles were a little off), but that didn’t matter as it engaged me from the start with its oddness and mystery.

Below is a quick summary which goes into less detail than IMDB.

Some bloke named Hector is sitting out in his garden noseying at the woods beyond his house with a pair of binoculars when he sees a naked lady. Well, naturally Hector decides to have a closer look, as you would, but this leads him to being stabbed in the arm by a strange man with his face all bandaged up. A chase ensues which leads Hector to seek refuge in what turns out to be a time machine which transports him a couple of hours back in time. Cue madness as Hector tries to ensure that things go the way they’re supposed to in order to avoid him being left as a duplicate of himself.

Naturally with this sort of thing there are some predictabilities (some of which you’ll already have figured out by reading the summary), but there are also parts that you’ll likely not see coming until you get that ‘of course’ moment when it all falls into place and makes sense. A charming film that has been well thought through and very nicely realised with an ending that ties things together beautifully and surprisingly.

I give Timecrimes:
BSTtoGMT/10