God’s Crooked Lines (Spanish: Los renglones torcidos de Dios)[1] is a 2022 Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Oriol Paulo which stars Bárbara Lennie. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel of the same name by Torcuato Luca de Tena. The film world premiered at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival. 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. Set in 1979,[2] the fiction follows a woman (Alice Gould de Almenara) who enters a psychiatric ward as a privately-hired investigator upon request from Dr. Raimundo García del Olmo to investigate the circumstances around the death of the latter’s son in the facility.
An adaptation of the 1979 bestseller by Torcuato Luca de Tena [es],[n. 1] Los renglones torcidos de Dios was written by the director Oriol Paulo alongside Guillem Clua [es] and Lara Sendim.[9][5][8] Bernat Bosch took over cinematography duties whereas Fernando Velázquez worked as composer.[4] The film was produced by Nostromo Pictures, Atresmedia Cine and Filmayer.[5]
Filming started in May 2021,[10] and wrapped 9 weeks later.[4]
Shooting took place in several locations of the provinces of Tarragona and Barcelona,[5] including Terrassa,[11] Barcelona, and Tarragona. The old Tabacalera building [ca] in Tarragona and a former Mercedes car plant in Barcelona were used to portray the psychiatric hospital.
Rubén Romero Santos of Cinemanía rated the film 3½ out of 5 stars, deeming it to be “a thrilling and elegant” exercise of narrative shell gaming.[18] Beatriz Martínez of El Periódico de Catalunya rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, considering that “the intrigue finds a perfect balance between stylization and magnetism”, also praising the “titanic” adaptation work, “in which not only the language is cleaned and distilled”, “but also the stale substratum from the novel”.[19] Raquel Hernández Luján of HobbyConsolas rated the film with 50 out of 100 points (“so-so”), considering that it fails at respecting the heart of the novel (the dignification of the mentally ill and the value put on the work of the staff), praising the art direction and costume design while God’s Crooked Lines negatively assessing the direction of actors and the overextended footage achieved by a number of consecutive closures.[20] Juan Pando of Fotogramas rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, considering that it is “the kind of film that attracts viewers to the theaters and does not disappoint them”, while noting that its footage could have been trimmed and its outcome simplified.
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