God’s Crooked Lines: Paranoia or Reality?

They say that Torcuato Luca de Tena, author of The Crooked Lines of God, He pretended to have a depressive psychosis to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She achieved it and spent about 18 days at the Nuestra Señora de la Fuentecilla Hospital in Mexico, where there were about 800 residents. In the end, they “caught” him, they discovered the sane patient, but that seasoned journalist obtained the story of his life.

This experience allowed him to learn about the complex micro-universe of the mental health centers of the 70s. Also the praiseworthy work of doctors, nurses and caregivers. Professionals who seek, above all, to “straighten” God’s crooked lines. From this experience he wrote a book, the essence of antipsychiatry, with which to dignify the entire group, including the patients themselves.

Now, we have a new film adaptation that, after having been in theaters, arrives in the Netflix catalog to become one of the most viewed contents. However, those who look for a millimetric correspondence of the novel with all its characters and narratives in the film directed by Oriol Paulo will not find it. But the final result does not disappoint.

From book to film: The crooked lines of God

Those who have seen the work of screenwriter and film director Oriol Paulo will be well aware of his undeniable mastery for the thrillers. His games and twists in the script never fail to baffle and keep the viewer in suspense. Examples of this are other titles such as Setback, The Body, Julia’s Eyes, Kidnapping or During the Storm.

The crooked lines of God (2022) moves a little away from the psychiatric background that the book addresses in detail and undeniable solidity. We miss extraordinary secondary characters and greater psychological contextualization. However, the tempos and dynamics in cinema are different, and in this case, the film focuses exclusively on its central axis, on its female protagonist.

With his hand, and through his mind and labyrinthine frameworks, we will immerse ourselves in a fragile line in which it will be difficult for us to distinguish sanity from madness, truth from inventiveness.

Alice Gould, a woman in search of the truth

The film begins with the view of a forest. A road follows where we see a mustang red, in which an elegant woman travels. That beginning reminds us a lot of Alfred Hitchcock’s visual narrative. The protagonist travels in that car, Alice Gould, a private investigator who has been hired to investigate an alleged suicide occurred in a psychiatric hospital.

She enters said institution voluntarily, feigning paranoia. During her investigation, she will have the help of one of the inmates in order to clarify whether the center’s leaders were responsible for the homicide. It didn’t take us long to connect with her. Alice is attracted to her wit, her determination and her remarkable intelligence..

However, soon doubts begin to arise about his identity and his sanity. After a series of highly serious incidents, the protagonist decides that it is time to leave the center. To her surprise, those responsible for the sanatorium refuse. Is she really an investigator hired to solve a crime? Or is a patient yet another victim of her own delusions?

Between madness and sanity: the eternal fragility of truth

The movie The crooked lines of God He plays masterfully with the timelines and twists of the script. On the one hand, we are trapped in the eternal doubt about whether Alice is who she says she is or is just another resident of the psychiatric hospital itself. Her confrontation with the doctor, Samuel Alvar, puts his sanity and her credibility in check.

On the other hand, we witness murders, prisoner escapes, fires and the possibility that Alice is the victim of a plot to keep her locked up… All this kaleidoscope of events takes place in the middle of a gloomy atmosphere, of infinite flashbacks and flash fordwards, of revealing dialogues and ambiguous characters that make us change our minds at every moment.

The truth in this film is fragile and a mirage at the same time. It almost simulates a house of cards that collapses in an instant and, shortly after, rises again with more towers and new cards. In some way, it is the very reflection of a sick mind in which all possibilities exist at once and none are solid enough.

An unexpected turn

The novel, The crooked lines of God, It was unforgettable, but the movie that Netflix brings us is acceptable. It does not reach the climax and mastery of the divine narrative of Torcuato Luca de Tena. However, we cannot detract from the fact that, as a cinematographic product, what Oriol Paulo achieved is pure entertainment.

Barbara Lennie, in the role of Alicia Gould, is, without fear of being wrong, the most notable thing in the film. His acting skill is hypnotic and thanks to it, he sustains the more than two hours of film. A time, without a doubt, excessive. Remarkable is the proverbial twist that the director leaves us right at the end. An unexpected piece, a finishing touch that breaks everything and distances it, once again, from the novel.

As inevitable spoiler, It is worth highlighting the fact that we will still not know if the protagonist is a resident or a victim of a trap. If the entire production requires mental effort on the part of the viewer, Its resolution necessarily invites new reflection. Just at the moment when we assume that Alice is about to leave the psychiatric hospital, a familiar face arrives…

This is Doctor Donadio, whom she saw as Doctor García del Olmo, the man who hired her to investigate her son’s suicide. A figure that, upon seeing it, utters an enigmatic question…”Hi Alice, What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?».

Cinema and psychiatric hospitals, a classic

This is a film that distills the captivating essence of film noir. In addition, The crooked lines of God presents wonderful reminiscences of other titles such as Shutter Island. If Martin Scorsese brought us a Leonardo DiCaprio, who bordered on lucidity with madness in a psychiatric center, Oriol Paulo has done the same with Barbara Lennie.

The films that use mental health institutions to show us the fragility of the human mind are multiple and most exceptional. There we have since Remember until Some one flies over the cuco’s nidus. All of them are tributes to people who suffer, to men and women who, as Luca de Tena said, are those crooked lines of life that have a story.

They are not crazy, they are not marginalized from our society. They are people who suffer, men and women captive to their mental traps. To understand them it is necessary to excavate layer by layer, delve into their stories, strive to connect with their universes to glimpse their pain and chaotic worlds. Oriol Paulo’s film is a good exercise to achieve this.

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