Over my last few reviews I have been on the war path about story and script writing. Given that my last reviews where “The Last Airbender” and “Resident Evil: Afterlife” I feel genuinely justified in my harsh calls but it’s easy to attack films and harder to award solid praise. So I decided to pick a film that does story so perfectly that it almost begs you to try find a holes in it’s logic.
Time Crimes is one of those films that is always only one or two friends away from you. Everyone who is a fan of cinema will have at least one friend that has seen it or owns it and it was no different for me. The name had popped up so many times that when my eyes stumbled over it shelved at my local JB HIFI I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about.
The film follows everyday man Hector who has just moved to a new house outside the city and seems to spend most of his time being a prick to his wife. By random chance he notices a woman getting undressed in the bushes just outside his property, and with very little consideration (obviously just to see if she’s alright) heads out to find her. If this is sounding dull this is where the film changes pace. Within a few minutes from this point he finds the girl dead, he gets chased by a faceless psycho and climbs into a time machine. Now before you panic, these are not spoilers this is only the first 15 minutes. From here it gets interesting. Once the film goes through this gear change it’s important to stay focused, as it is a foreign film there is no exposition or catch up points.
As I said at the start, the major selling point to this film is it’s writing, the film becomes more and more complicated from this point on. The film adds more and more layers with each section of the story and you as the viewer become completely absorbed with putting the pieces together, trying to remember what’s already happened and adding it to all of the new twists they are throwing at you. But where this film succeeds over lesser films is that the build isn’t wasted.
When the film concludes, credits roll and you find yourself silent, left to process all you have seen and unsure what you think about it. This is a sign of a great thriller. You have to really step back and look from a distance to fully grasp what happened, sometimes it will take two or three viewings to really grasp the whole story.
This is one of the few times that I will say to believe the hype. Though it may not suit all tastes, this film is a classic piece of cinema and it deserves every bit of praise it gets.
So, strap on you thinking cap, hide away for a few hours and keep your eyes open. Blinking may cost you with this one.
– Josh
