"Timecrimes": A creepy, cerebral do-over game

A sci-fi thriller with no special effects, a cast of four and a single location used with Hitchcockian economy, "Timecrimes" boasts the kind of smart, resourceful filmmaking that champions ingenuity over spectacle. Like the micro-budget 2004 indie hit "Primer" (with which it shares a central plot device), it's a thinking person's time-travel thriller that turns low-budget necessity into the mother of invention.

Making an impressive feature debut, Spanish writer-director Nacho Vigalondo makes good on the promise of his Oscar-nominated 2003 short, "7:35 in the Morning," which also boasted the clever execution of a mind-bending twist. With "Timecrimes," he begins calmly enough, with a happy couple settling into their new country home.

While his wife, Clara (Candela Fernandez), is out getting groceries, Hector (Karra Elejalde) is relaxing in a lawn chair, scouting the nearby woods with a pair of binoculars. When he spies a young woman disrobing amid the trees of a nearby hillside, he decides to investigate. Upon finding the girl (Barbara Goenaga) naked and unconscious, he's attacked by an overcoated figure whose head is wrapped, mummylike, in a ratty pink bandage.

Fleeing from his assailant, Hector happens upon a round, silolike laboratory whose sole occupant (played by Vigalondo) is an anxious scientist who urges Hector to hide in a large, water-filled tank to elude his attacker. After what seems like just a moment or two, Hector emerges from the tank to discover he's traveled about an hour backward in time, now forced to confront himself as his own attacker in an attempt to undo the tragic consequences of his unexpected time leap.

Vigalondo's brisk pacing turns "Timecrimes" into the kind of brainteaser that welcomes a second viewing to check for plot holes and spot time-referential clues as events are repeated from Hector's time-shifting perspective. Adhering to its own hermetically sealed logic, "Timecrimes" is cerebral enough to attract David Cronenberg, who signed on as the prime-choice director of an up-

coming remake.

With no time machine at our disposal, we'll just have to wait to see if Cronenberg's version (adapted by Timothy J. Sexton, the screenwriter of "Children of Men") offers any tantalizing improvements.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net