CURIOSITY killed the cat – and it threatens to do the same to Hector, the 50ish everyman at the center of the Spanish brainteaser “Timecrimes.”
Relaxing after a hard day in town, Hector (Karra Elejalde) is toying with his binoculars in the yard of his new country home when he spies a young woman taking off her top.
He may be married but he’s still curious, so he goes off to investigate. He finds the woman (Barbara Goenaga), who is now nude and unconscious and propped against a boulder.
Within seconds, Hector is stabbed with scissors in his right arm by a man whose face is wrapped in pink bandages.
Now, I would have run back home, but Hector decides to take refuge in a hilltop lab. There, a bearded gentleman – played by the film’s director-writer, Nacho Vigalondo – persuades Hector to get into a strange contraption.
He emerges shortly to discover that he has gone back an hour in time. Sixty minutes isn’t such a long time, but in this case Hector could end up dead if he doesn’t re-create events just as they occurred during that hour.
Whether intentionally or not, Vigalondo peppers this, his first feature, with references to other movies – “Frankenstein,” “The Elephant Man,” “Lost Highway,” “Seconds” and “The Time Machine” immediately come to mind.
His budget is modest, but that doesn’t stop him from creating an aura of apprehension. Trippy viewing awaits, as long as you’re not a stickler for logic.
According to rumors swirling on the Internet, an English-language remake is already in the works, possibly directed by David Cronenberg.
TIMECRIMES Sixty minutes. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 89 minutes. Rated R (nudity, violence). At the Sunshine, Houston Street near First Avenue.