Lets’
talk Spanish, low-budget time travel, shall we?
The
translation of the title of this 2007 movie from Spain is Time Crimes, which, face it, sounds dumber than Los Cronocrimenes. This film has a lot of things I truly don’t
like about time travel in movies. It is
clearly a loop story, and in the end, I’m not sure all the loose ends are tied
up. However, it was made with a budget
of less than $3 million, probably equaling the budget for Emma Watson’s hair in
one Harry Potter movie. I had to check it out.
Since
this is a lesser-known film, I’ll try not to spoil it for everyone. But here goes: Hector is a married man in his house in the
countryside. He sits in a chair in his
backyard and witnesses a naked woman in the nearby woods. A man appears to attack her. Hector investigates. Throughout his day, he
discovers that a neighborhood home is also a lab with a bizarre container that
serves as a time machine.
I
don’t think I should go any further.
The
film takes place in the Spanish countryside and stays there. I may have counted only four or five
characters total in the entire film. The
time machine is barely that; more of a whirlpool bath (Hot tub?) with a cover. Those elements are the all that are used to
carry this interesting and compelling piece of indie sci-fi to its conclusion.
Editing, limited dialogue, and smart scripting propel the action. The filmmakers managed to keep the story more
of a mystery than a discussion of time travel and changing one’s past. In fact,
Hector misunderstands his plight and usually makes the wrong decisions. Los Cronocrimenes is also creepy. The film is shot from Hector’s POV in several
scenes with jarring effect.
This
is time travel as more thriller or traditional horror. The time loop is essential to the plot,
although my problem of free will crept into my head as I watched. Remember, in the time loop world, if you see
a future version of yourself jump off the Belaggio in Vegas, and then when you
are faced with the same event, you have no choice but to jump. There is no turning around and quitting. There is no going downstairs, hitting the
buffet and eating crab legs all night.
You gotsta die.
So
the time travel in Los Cronocrimenes
isn’t my cup of tea, but what they accomplished in this genre was
impressive. The science is truly more
secondary to the evolution of Hector throughout the film. It reminded of The Twilight Zone. The protagonist has no overt moral bent; he’s
just a normal man in a normal situation.
He is not asking for trouble, but he immediately becomes ensnarled in
circumstances he barely understands.
Hector doesn’t try to do the right thing; he has no idea what to do to
get him out of his situation. He doesn’t have Doc Brown or a chief science
officer or a TARDIS to guide him. Lead characters in time travel movies
eventually embrace the mission. Hector
is a reluctant participant throughout.
The
film highlights the essential ingredients of time travel. This is a confusing, frightening situation
under which normal people would most likely make incorrect assumptions and dumb
decisions. We have only had fiction to
explore this hypothetical circumstance and it is the duty of the writer to
explore each one of these stories in some unique way. No one is sure what would happen. No one is exactly sure whether it could
happen at all. This is one area of
science fiction where theory and imagination have free reign, until there is
proof of a genuine flux capacitor or a magical phone booth. Los
Cronocrimenes is a reminder that no matter how it occurs, the results would
most likely be an abhorrent mess.
Time
travel without all the bells and whistles.
I watched it on Netflix and had a good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment