With a rather bizarre and unappealing sounding synopsis, Los Cronocrímenes was not something which particularly enticed me to choose it above others in the to-watch pile. It was simply a matter of restricted time which led me to opt for this film, the shortest of the available options.
Sitting outside his newly purchased country home with his wife, Héctor spies a glimpse of a stripping girl in the forest area adjacent to his garden. Going to further investigate once his wife leaves, he finds himself embroiled in a mysterious chain of events involving a masked stranger, the space-time continuum, and a strange research facility...
The premise of Los Cronocrímenes appeared to suggest a run-of-the-mill B-movie sci-fi film, not something with which I have a problem, but nor something which I feel entirely drawn toward over others. Nevertheless, the film was more or less my only option, and so I sat back and allowed it to attempt to win me over. A quick establishment shows us the happy lives of the central character and his wife, an apparently untroubled relationship. A handful of well executed jump cuts create the illusion of passing time as director Nacho Vigalondo rushes us along to the beginning of the film's series of events. For a period of about five minutes or so, things seem to run the risk of descending into the territory of jumping-out-from-behind-a-tree horror, but this is merely a brief borrowing of generic convention. After we encounter the mysterious facility, with its concomitant creepily quiet laboratories, the sci-fi element begins, setting the narrative spiralling toward ever-increasing convolution and confusion. Questions of causality, paradoxes, and the impractical side-effects of time travel crop up amidst the rather fast-paced storyline, in essence a multi-part, multi-perspective retelling of the same chain of events. Much like Héctor, we are forced to struggle to keep up with just what exactly is going on, who is doing what to whom, what causes which, and just how everything is going to come together neatly to give a practical solution to the many problems time travel so rudely and inconsiderately engenders. Many of these situations are, as you may have guessed, quite humorous, comedy the film's supporting crutch but by no means a distinguishing feature. The audience is kept guessing until the end, the increasing revisions to what we previously thought the final truth of a situation adding more and more contortion to what originally seemed a simple story. Vigalondo is a skilled screenwriter, rewarding his viewers for managing to keep up with him by effectively and respectfully concluding his little tale. A humble director, he amusingly takes the part of the much abused time-machine operator, allowing lead actor Karra Elejalde to assault him with a crowbar. That's one approach to directing your actors.
Los Cronocrímenes does not last long, and this is to its benefit, managing to make each of its 85 minutes wholly engaging; one will not want to miss a second in keeping up with the narrative twists and turns. A very fine execution of an intelligent and interesting—though not wholly original—idea, it's nothing tremendously special, but by gum is it fun while it lasts.
Sitting outside his newly purchased country home with his wife, Héctor spies a glimpse of a stripping girl in the forest area adjacent to his garden. Going to further investigate once his wife leaves, he finds himself embroiled in a mysterious chain of events involving a masked stranger, the space-time continuum, and a strange research facility...
The premise of Los Cronocrímenes appeared to suggest a run-of-the-mill B-movie sci-fi film, not something with which I have a problem, but nor something which I feel entirely drawn toward over others. Nevertheless, the film was more or less my only option, and so I sat back and allowed it to attempt to win me over. A quick establishment shows us the happy lives of the central character and his wife, an apparently untroubled relationship. A handful of well executed jump cuts create the illusion of passing time as director Nacho Vigalondo rushes us along to the beginning of the film's series of events. For a period of about five minutes or so, things seem to run the risk of descending into the territory of jumping-out-from-behind-a-tree horror, but this is merely a brief borrowing of generic convention. After we encounter the mysterious facility, with its concomitant creepily quiet laboratories, the sci-fi element begins, setting the narrative spiralling toward ever-increasing convolution and confusion. Questions of causality, paradoxes, and the impractical side-effects of time travel crop up amidst the rather fast-paced storyline, in essence a multi-part, multi-perspective retelling of the same chain of events. Much like Héctor, we are forced to struggle to keep up with just what exactly is going on, who is doing what to whom, what causes which, and just how everything is going to come together neatly to give a practical solution to the many problems time travel so rudely and inconsiderately engenders. Many of these situations are, as you may have guessed, quite humorous, comedy the film's supporting crutch but by no means a distinguishing feature. The audience is kept guessing until the end, the increasing revisions to what we previously thought the final truth of a situation adding more and more contortion to what originally seemed a simple story. Vigalondo is a skilled screenwriter, rewarding his viewers for managing to keep up with him by effectively and respectfully concluding his little tale. A humble director, he amusingly takes the part of the much abused time-machine operator, allowing lead actor Karra Elejalde to assault him with a crowbar. That's one approach to directing your actors.
Los Cronocrímenes does not last long, and this is to its benefit, managing to make each of its 85 minutes wholly engaging; one will not want to miss a second in keeping up with the narrative twists and turns. A very fine execution of an intelligent and interesting—though not wholly original—idea, it's nothing tremendously special, but by gum is it fun while it lasts.