Psychological thriller fans might find God’s Crooked Lines to be a tad derivative. Fans of the novel might find its film adaptation slightly more convoluted than the original text. But for viewers entirely new to both, the undercover psych ward investigation proves to be an intriguing mystery, twisting the plot by playing with alternating timelines and unreliable narration. This new approach makes sense. It does modify the ending, but the new approach eases the novel into visual form, giving a nice rhythm to each reveal. The psychological thriller may not be a perfect adaptation, but Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios maintains the suspense that made the original novel work.
Alice Gould, a private investigator, pretends to be mentally ill in order to enter a psychiatric hospital and gather evidence for the case she is working on: the death of a patient in unclear circumstances.
Spain, 1979. Private investigator Alice Gould de Almenara checks into a psychiatric hospital supposedly for paranoia, but in reality, she hopes to collect evidence for the death of a former inmate.
Some thriller fans might find God’s Crooked Lines a bit too similar to Martin Scorcese’s Shutter Island. (We won’t explain more, since saying this can be a spoiler for both.) Interestingly enough, both films adapt novels, and the source material for God’s Crooked Lines was published thirty years before the source novel of Shutter Island, so we’re inclined to believe this is somewhat coincidental.
If you like Shutter Island, you might like this film.
