Time crimes is a Spanish language film from director Nacho Vigalondo. It stars Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Bárbara Goenaga and the director himself.

It follows the story of Hector and his wife who have either just moved into their new house. and after Hector develops a case of over curiosity from spying a naked girl in the woods, he goes exploring and is attacked by a scissor wielding man with bandages obscuring his face, reminisant of Liam Neeson in Sam Raimi's Darkman, and that’s when things go crazy. I can’t go into too much detail as to the plot that follows as that would ruin the surprise. The film involves time travel and the final few twist can be seen coming because of the nature of the time travel rules within the film. This however does not spoil the ride. Director Vigalondo manages to keep enough surprises coming to keep the viewer interested and Elejalde’s performance is very compelling to watch. It is effectively a one man show and he really isn't a typical Hollywood leading man and perhaps this works to the films advantage. It is kind of an everyman's tale of time travel. His actions are that of a man desperate to understand what is happening to him, and is probably what anyone would do if presented with the films scenario. Having said that, by the end of the film, our hero has perhaps too good a handle on time travel, even more than the scientist who invented it. This is needed for the film to reach its final conclusion and eliminates the need for a "doc brown" type character to explain everything to our hero but I just found it a big leap that he could catch on this quick.

The film makes excellent use of music. the is some subtle scoring in the opening credits and a few moments along the way and that’s really it until the moment our hero realizes what he must do to fix everything for the main theme to kick in. it is quite a creepy score, that reminded me of a Spanish version of the doctor who theme. It is very effective.

The cinematography is very well done, but it lacks the polish of an a-list film. It is clear this is an independent but that doesn’t take away from the film. There are some beautifully detail filled panning shots

It relies heavily on predestination. A theory of time travel which works very well within film. It seems one of the most realistic ways to portray time travel. And the film sticks to this rule very well. There are lots of clues in the first act that become clear in the second act and the again clues setup in the second act become clear in the third. The 3 act structure of the film is split in a way that each act is a time when our hero Hector travels in time, and certain seemingly unimportant events that take place in each act are used as a sort of marker as to how much time has passed within each time jump. For example the thunder heard in act 1, and the sirens heard in act 2, and a few others, quite clever I thought. Be sure to pay attention to all the clues, the camera will focus on them to make sure you see them so keep your eyes peeled.

Pros 1. clever2. effective lack of special effects3. Barbara Goenaga

Cons1. that was a lot of bandage for such a small wound (watch the film to see what I mean)2. Hector catches on very quick3. Was the machine actually built for time travel? A little more explanation would have been nice