Timecrimes - 3.5/5

"Timecrimes" caught my attention immediately. This Spanish science fiction/thriller seemed to be just my ally with its masquerading scissor wielding masked antogonist and its strange time leaping plot, so it was only a matter of time before I caught wind of it. Unfortunately, it was unable to live up to a lot of my hyped expectations, but is a strong and fascinating film at its core.

Our protagonist Hector, finds himself in the midst of an anxiety ridden day when he stumbles across the sight of a nude woman in the trees behind his country side home. As he goes to investigate, an attack from pink masked assailant makes him bolt for the nearest neighbor, which happens to be the testing site for a prototype time machine. Things get even more complicated when Hector finds himself time jumping not only to set time straight, but save himself and his wife.

This premise is bad ass. It wasn't at all what I thought I would be at first (this review is going to end up being very vague due to the massive amounts of spoilers and odd plot points that I'm going to try to navigate around) as the thriller side of the film quickly dissolves into an odd puzzle/problem solving issue from hell, but I was definitely glued to the story the entire time as I rooted for our unfortunate protagonist Hector (one, two, and three!). This side of "Timecrimes" is by far its strongest and packs the hardest punch.

Unfortunately, I don't think that a lot of the rest of the film can quite hold up the high presence of the concept and story though. The acting tends to be a little sub-standard for this kind of affair, and although Hector's life is in shambles, some of his decisions made as a character are a little odd and his reactions are a bit unbelievable. The same goes with the 'scientist' whom helps him out. They make some odd choices as actors and characters for the sake of keeping the plot moving, and its a bit off setting.

Throw on top of that, the fact that "Timecrimes" and its production look and values feels a bit like a made for TV movie. I'm not sure how to truly express this, but its one of those looks and feelings that I get when watching something that was made for TV and I don't ever think that's a good sign for a film like this.

"Timecrimes" could have been astounding but it needed a bit more realism in character work and production to pull it off. The concept and story are awesome and the directing has a lot to do with how much it does pull off in the end. Could have been better, but was a great film watch either way. 

Written By Matt Reifschneider