The Crooked Lines of God

Another great movie by one of the top Spanish directors nowadays. As his other projects you get a fantastic dosis of suspense and will keep asking questions throught the film. A difficult book to adapt but the director manages to do it perfectly well. Really entertaining movie with quality. Eduard Fernández and Oriol Paulo are always a guarantee for movie lovers.. My advice is not to read a lot about the film. I also recommend checking the director's previous films. This has been the best year in Spanish cinema in a long time. Mistery, good acting and entertainment, enough for me. Turn on the tv and Enjoy...

Oriol Paulo has important means for his film about a psychiatric hospital. With a beautiful work on the sets, costumes and, very important, the impressive decor of the psychiatric hospital where a good part of the film takes place. The film is sumptuous.

A film where the intrigue is to know if Barbara Lennie, patient of the psychiatric hospital, is well in her place, or not, that is to say is she reached of a mental disease or not. According to the points of view, according to the editing of the film, according to the flashbacks or the flashforwards, the answer differs. And it is the whole purpose of Oriol Paulo to succeed in making a film that holds the spectator in suspense until the end, until the last shot. The multiple subplots that the scenario agrees require an important work to the spectator to put back together the pieces and to make the links, and this permanently. This makes the film not seem long despite its 2h30 duration.

The film is also plastically a success: in terms of photography, sets and costumes. With a special mention to Barbara Lennie, who is in all the shots of the film, with a big work to carry all the components of her character.

The movie starts with a bird's-view of a mountainous landscape. A car drives down a road. We know our heroine is going to be alone in this journey.

Alice is a private detective set to investigate the events that lead to the death of the son of her client. Her client does not agree with the final report: suicide. She decides to enter sanatorium where her client's son was institutionalized to conduct her investigations on the source. Once there, who can judge sanity over insanity?

The plot follow two storylines: we see Alice's perspective and investigation, and then we shift into a breakout event that led to the death of one of the sanatorium's patients. The story keeps us hooked until the very end, a great who-and-whydunit story that leaves us guessing until the very end.

The ending is good too, although people who read the book where screenwriters based this movie's story on can argue which ending is the best. I personally think both takes are good.

For a mystery story, it's possible to defend that the movie is too long, dragging a bit. I feel that this is not true; the movie is long, but the story is good. I don't mind being hooked for over 2 hours if the story is good.

At the end, I felt rewarded: the movie delivered. One could debate that there are some really messed up stuff that happens, and that the police seems a bit lost in this whole mess, but you need to remember this story happens in 1979.

If you are a fan of mystery dramas and don't mind the time spent on this movie, God's Crooked Lines is recommendable.

Answer: You want to watch how it ends, and it catches you just after the first seconds, right until the last.

This movie is a performance in overall consistency, pace and quality. Certainly some of the best in 2022. Using a difficult subject (mental health), in a difficult place (a sanitarium with crazy people), with a difficult duration (2 and 1/2 hours), it manages to create an atmosphere, tensions, twists, attachment and beauty at all times, with charismatic actors handling all characters that you do not want to leave. These a signs of a very well crafted movie, giving a lot of care to details and to the audience, but without any easy writing or gratuitous eye candy.

Watch it, you won't be disappointed (except if you are looking for stereotypical and empty movies).

The Mystery concept is on full display in this film, though unfortunately it is not a new, refreshed, or novel mystery. Here we have the typical madhouse film that questions the sanity of the protagonist mixed with the story of the typical crime story without a clear culprit.

But don't get me wrong, this movie is good and entertaining, despite its slow pace and excessively long footage. It is somehow a good mystery that if you plunge into the plot, you will fall into the confusion that the story presents and you will be motivated to unravel this mess with the smell of old parchment. The last plot twist can be felt a little bit forced, but after all, it's expected.