God's Crooked Lines Review | Leisurebyte
Director: Oriol Paulo
Date Created: 2022-10-06 12:30
3.5
God’s Crooked Lines (Los renglones torcidos de Dios) is a thriller film directed by Oriol Paulo and stars Bárbara Lennie, Eduard Fernández and Loreto Mauleón, alongside other cast members. The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Torcuato Luca de Tena and has a runtime of 155 minutes.
– No Spoilers –
God’s Crooked Lines Review
When God’s Crooked Lines starts off, you meet private detective Alice Gould as she voluntarily gets herself into a psychiatric hospital in order to figure out the death of a client’s son within its walls. The setting is ripe with anticipation and confusion as to whether Alice’s version of events is true or not.
There’s mischief and distrust in Alice’s eyes that make you question her version of events, and incidentally, you end up questioning everything that happens as we jump from past to present and then back. These jumps in time are extremely important to the story as we understand what happened that fated night, as we see both sides of the coin that confuse us thoroughly.
God’s Crooked Lines are confusing and complicated enough for everyone to enjoy. It’s not as cerebral as you’d expect, but it’s the right amount of twist to keep you guessing. Sure, there are several issues in the story itself that might make you think about its validity as a good thriller, but the movie does a great job at keeping all of its cards close to its chest till the very last minute.
As much as the time jumps are necessary to the storyline, they are also extremely confusing, differentiated only by the different stories at different times. Thus, most of the time, I had to do a double take and wonder what was going on before realising that we were somewhere else altogether. But don’t worry; it all makes sense in the end.
Either way, I think it adds to the questions that we ask ourselves – who is telling the truth? Is Alice truly suffering from some sort of mental illness, or is there something going on here? You ask yourself this question throughout the runtime without any real answers.
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There’s something just so cunning in everyone’s narrative that you can’t stop but question everyone. Alice, especially, being our protagonist and the person whose thoughts we are privy to is an enigma who gives nothing away. Thus, the more we know, the more we question her. Her character is complex, and most of the time, the things that she does makes you question whether she is the problem in the story or not.
God’s Crooked Lines looks stunning, and the cinematography is excellent. There are moments in the story that are heightened thanks to its stunning visuals and amazing background music that heighten the thrill and shock factor. The movie, in the end, delivers one final shocking twist that will leave you reeling, questioning your entire sanity, albeit with its fair share of plot holes.
Bárbara Lennie sells her role as Alice and provides such a good and believable performance that you wouldn’t be able to look away. She looks great in every scene that she is in, and her eyes talk when there is no dialogue. Honestly, she looks perfect for the role and is a treat to watch.
Summing Up: God’s Crooked Lines
God’s Crooked Lines end on a rather interesting note, with several plot twists leaving you reeling. It’s the last scene that really steals the show and is one of the reasons why you need to sit there till the end to get your answers!
God’s Crooked Lines is streaming on Netflix.
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What a crock of sh*t. This reviewer must not have actually seen the movie, spewing forth canned diatribe such as “the cinematography is excellent” when in one scene we get a clear shot of Romulus’s butt as he attempts to lead Alice into the forest, and “her eyes speak even when there is no dialogue” – seriously? Wayyyyyy over-reaching for artistic description that appears to actually have been scraped out of a Spaghetti-O’s can. Come on, can’t you write any better than this load of horse puckey, telling readers they “need to sit there until the end to get answers” when anyone who actually watched the movie knows there are NO answers, and the ending is left to viewer interpretation? It’s a great cliff-hanger with tons of twists and turns, but I sure wouldn’t have sat there for 155 minutes when the ending is confusing and inconclusive. Nor would I have bothered to read and comment on this review except for the amusement factor of the writer’s lack of clear description and horrific and voluminous failed attempts to create magical imagery from a garbage can of words.
Ew.
So true haha! My man!