God’s Crooked Lines is a 2022 Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Oriol Paulo. It is based on the 1979 novel “Los renglones torcidos de Dios” by Torcuato Luca de Tena.
The film follows Alice Gould (Bárbara Lennie), a private investigator who gets herself admitted into a psychiatric hospital in order to investigate the mysterious death of an inmate, Damián García del Olmo. She claims that Damián’s father, Dr. García del Olmo, hired her to look into his son’s supposed suicide.
To gain access to the hospital, Alice pretends to be suffering from paranoia. She manages to convince the staff, including Dr. Alvar, the head psychiatrist, to admit her. However, Dr. Alvar soon grows suspicious of Alice and accuses her of being a compulsive liar.
As Alice investigates Damián’s death, she discovers there may have been a cover-up. She befriends some of the patients, including Ignacio, a schizophrenic who seems to know more than he lets on. Alice also learns that another patient was killed around the same time as Damián.
Dr. Alvar tries everything to discredit Alice and stop her investigation. He even conspires with her husband Heliodoro to prove she is mentally unstable. Alice must find a way to expose the truth while proving her own sanity.
God’s Crooked Lines Ending Explained
In the climax, Alice arranges an escape plan with other patients to get out of the hospital. During the commotion, one of the patients, known as “The Elephant Man,” murders who he believes to be Rómulo, one of the twin brothers at the hospital.
Later, Alice holds a meeting to present her findings to the hospital board. She explains how she was hired by Dr. García del Olmo and lays out all the evidence suggesting Damián was murdered.
Just as Alice seems to have convinced the board of her story, Dr. Alvar plays his final card. He reveals that the man Alice claims hired her, Dr. García del Olmo, is standing right there next to him.
Alice looks confused as she does not recognize this man. The realization dawns on her that she had imagined him to be García del Olmo. The man standing there is actually her psychiatrist Dr. Donadio.
In the final shot, Alice has a vacant look in her eyes as she grasps that she has fabricated connections and conspiracy theories to avoid confronting her own mental illness. The ending indicates that while Alice seemed rational and credible for most of the film, she was in fact delusional the entire time.
In Depth Analysis of God’s Crooked Lines
God’s Crooked Lines plays with the notion of an unreliable narrator. Until the very end, the audience believes Alice’s version of events. When we realize she imagined hiring García del Olmo, it calls everything she said and did into question.
The title God’s Crooked Lines refers to a quote by Dr. Alvar, who says the mentally ill patients are like God’s mistakes, his crooked lines when learning to write. This fits with the theme of blurred lines between reality and delusion. We can see Alice as one of God’s crooked lines who has lost her grasp on the truth.
Ultimately, the film explores the complex nature of mental illness and paranoia. Even the sanest-seeming people can construct intricate illusions to protect their psyche. Alice seems completely credible but turns out to be the most unreliable narrator. This asks the audience to reconsider their assumptions about madness.
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In the end, though left open to interpretation, it suggests Alice has finally accepted she needs psychiatric help. The movie plays out her intricate denial mechanisms before she seemingly comes to terms with her own crooked lines.
