Friday 20 June 2008

EIFF: TimeCrimes - Review by Robert Duffin

Director: Nacho Vigalando
Running Time: 88 mins
Sat 21 Jun, 22:25
Cameo 1

Perfectly programmed as a midnight screening, writer/director Nacho Vigalondo's time bending thriller sees the bumbling Hector (Karra Elejalde) stumble across what he thinks is a random murder, which results in him accidentally getting sent back in time. Quickly he realises the crime is somehow linked to his innocent activities earlier that day, and every mundane action becomes subject to the butterfly effect. Neither Hector nor audience are given much time to contemplate the farcical events, which is to no detriment. The time-travel genre is well worn, and Vigalondo's script deals in dog-eared clichés, yet there is something pleasant in his neat attempts at logic. Elejalde is a great everyman, comfortably balancing anguish and slapstick, and in one riotous sequence, nonchalantly retracing a chilling murder scene pretending to care. The latest in a recent spate of low budget Spanish horrors, Time Crimes doesn't have the fear factor of [REC] but is an effectively offbeat delight.

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