God's Crooked Lines

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.

What an amazing mind-blowing psychological thriller making the easily the year's best screenplay flick... Oriol Paulo of "THE INVISIBLE GUEST" has crafted a briiliant screenplay that keeps u guessing with its past and present mode of storytelling... Quite creepy in the beginning 30 mins or so later plunges into deep heart every minute with twist and turns keeping us edge of seat, convincingly told in such a way that one can't predict who is pretending or who is real and does indulge in shocking act often... Barbara Lennie does carry the whole movie single handedly with her smart,manipulative gesture...truly Oscar worthy in every sense... Overall a perfect movie for every movie buffs.

As other reviewers have indicated this one has a lot of similarities with "Shutter Island", but in contrary to that great movie this one from my point of view crosses the line between creating a meaningful storyline and just creating "smoke and mirrors". For me it's clear that the director has spent more efforts on holding the audience in a constant uncertainty about "what is real and what is imagination" rather than delivering an exciting plot. 3/4 into the movies I realized that I had really no clue what was going on and, even worse, that I didn't really care either! As many other reviewers are mentioning the book it's build on I might consider reading that one.....I might also consider (if I have a day with nothing better to do!) to watch the movie again....just to check that I didn't miss out on anything?

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...

I watched this with little expectations other than a mix of negative reviews and one about 'a movie for intellectuals.' If you enjoyed Shutter Island, I highly recommend as this is of the same genre, well made, characters develop at a comfortable pace and the crooked lines in the plot are well played, done with thought and til the end.

I look forward to watching this again as I know I will pick up something new with each watch. I didn't recognize any of these actors, but was very impressed by all. Any movie set made to be in an insane asylum can go one of many ways. The characters here were intriguing, make you laugh, cry, and want to be their friends.