How is a person supposed to understand that something is wrong with his mental health? Perhaps other people should tell him about it. However, how to distinguish the truth from lies and prove that you are absolutely healthy, and your referral for treatment to a clinic for the mentally ill is just the intrigues of your husband?
The meaning of the film “Los renglones torcidos de Dios”
According to the plot of the film, Alice Gould ends up in a hospital for the mentally ill. The woman does this on purpose – the father of one of the former patients of this clinic turned to her. Some time ago, his son Domian died. Doctors concluded that the patient had committed suicide. However, the father himself does not believe in this. It seems to him that the doctors deliberately concealed important details of his son’s death. To find out what exactly happened, the man turned to a private detective.
To get reliable information, Alice goes to the clinic. The client’s father and the current head of the clinic are good friends. He helped to forge documents and pass the woman off as a new patient. Only Alice and Director Alvare know about this secret.
Alice tries to find at least some information about the deceased and discovers that almost everyone keeps some kind of secret. It remains only to isolate the necessary information and clean it from the delusions of patients.
Initially, the investigation moves quickly. The detective even manages to get a necessary patient’s file and make friends.
A positive move interrupts an unexpected event. One of the clinic’s patients, the dwarf Louis, attacks Alice to rape her. As a result of resistance, the woman loses consciousness, and when she wakes up she discovers that Louis is dead, and she is accused of killing the patient. Alice manages to escape punishment – she claims that she cannot remember the course of events, and suggests that the death of the dwarf occurred as a result of self-defense.
The director of the clinic tells Alice that he never corresponded with her, and Mrs. Gult herself is seriously ill. Alice tries to justify herself and arranges a brawl. From that moment on, the woman’s cloudless stay in the clinic ended.
At Alice’s request, the Clinic Council meets. A woman tells doctors that her illness is fictitious. However, it was not possible to completely convince the staff. The doctors decided to invite Father Domian to the clinic to confirm or deny the version told by Alicia. As it turned out, Dr. Dellolma and the customer Alice are completely different people. Such information is not in the hands of a woman and she is subjected to heavy therapy, including electric shock treatment.
The woman steadfastly endures all the procedures and, at the same time, convinces some of the staff to believe in her story. The clinic staff, despite the director’s ban, decide to help Alice, because they began to doubt that her diagnosis is true. As a result, some doctors issue a verdict: Alice is a legally kidnapped patient. Alice’s husband emptied her accounts and left for Asia, the doctor who referred her for treatment disappeared, a check for a very large sum was found in the personal file of Mrs. Gould, and in the city itself there really is a private detective agency in the name of the patient.
At the same time, Alice discovers that the only way to survive is to escape from the clinic. To distract staff from escaping and buy time for herself, the woman organizes an arson. Everything went according to plan until the police showed up. As it turned out, after the fire, one of the patients was found dead. Alice decides to pose as a medical examiner, but her deception is quickly exposed.
Now the doctors of the clinic are forced to reconvene the board in order to justify Alice and remove Alvara from the leadership.
Ending explained Los renglones torcidos de Dios
Movies about mind games are always unconventional. In such films it is difficult to distinguish truth from fiction, and the past from the present. To enhance the psychological effect, the film uses the “time jump” technique. It implies a break in the main storyline, fragments of events from the past.
In “Crooked Lines” such jumps are of a specific nature: instead of the usual past-future, the plot moves between three time dimensions – the distant past – the recent past – the present. This structure is very confusing, because at the beginning the viewer perceives the fire as the events of the past, as a result of which Domian died. Only at the end of the film is it possible to find out that the footage of the night disaster is the future, and Alice set the fire to escape from the clinic.
The name of the main character is symbolic, as, indeed, the title of the film. The true meaning of these nominatives is explained by the characters themselves. Let’s start with the title of the movie. Dr. Alvare, speaking of his patients, claims that people with mental illness are the crooked lines of the Lord. He explains it this way: there was a time when God did not yet know how to create living beings, but only studied, just as children at school learn to write letters. While God was learning, not everything was easy for him. If you draw an analogy with the school process, says Alvare, you can imagine how children are trained to write lines: some of them turn out as they should, others are crooked. Under the beautiful, straight lines, the doctor means healthy people, and under the curves, the mentally unhealthy. Let’s summarize a little: the title of the film makes us think,
Now back to the heroine. On her first day at the clinic, Mrs. Gould is compared to Lewis Carroll’s fabulous Alice. A patient of the Ignacio clinic ironically asks the woman: “What brought you to this Looking-Glass?”, but does not receive an answer. In Carroll’s story, Alice’s personality seems to be divided between two worlds: one of them lives the ordinary life of an English girl, the other finds herself in an unknown world that is both similar and unlike the familiar world. The heroine herself also finds herself “torn” between two worlds: the “World of Truth” and the “World of Fiction”. Just like Alice through the Looking Glass, Alice has the ability to return to reality from her illusions and fantasies, but this does not happen in the film itself. Until the last shots, the woman is confident in her story.
At the end of the film, Dr. Alvare decides to remove his voice. As the man explains, he does not want to sign a huge mistake and legitimize the incompetence of his colleagues with his signature.
The doctors unanimously support Alice. And now, when the matter has already been decided, Mrs. Gould’s family doctor enters the hall, at the invitation of Alvare. The one who sent her for treatment. As it turned out, he did not disappear at all, but was on vacation with his wife and therefore could not answer the telegrams in time. At this moment, Alice’s face changes. The woman clearly recognized the man who had entered. From Alice’s previous memories, the viewer recognizes the customer in the person who entered. At this point, Alice looks scared. Why the woman reacted in this way remains a mystery. If we consider the version that her husband got rid of her, then the fear can easily be explained as follows: Alice realized that the conspiracy against her was extensive and now she had no chance of leaving the clinic. On the other hand, if we accept the position of Dr. Alvare, and admit that Alice is mentally ill,
The director leaves the denouement of the film open – the viewer can take the position that is closer to him.
Los renglones torcidos de Dios: Is Alice Gould Mentally Ill or Out of Her Mind?
The ending of “God’s Crooked Lines” boils down to a simple question – is Alice lying or not? Throughout the film, the hospital staff oscillate between two options. Each revelation forces them to change their position, and the film’s ending leaves them on an eerily uncertain note. Why doesn’t Alice recognize Dr. Donadio? Does she come up with another explanation in her mind? Well, here are our theories.
Theory 1: Alice Gould is mentally ill
Alice Gould may be mentally ill in God’s Crooked Lines. We don’t know much about Alice’s past and her relationship with her husband. We only know that she may have poisoned Heliodoro three times before he realized it. But the film never mentions the motive behind her actions. If we look closely, we can infer probable motives from several instances, habits, and traits. In addition, her mannerisms can also prove that Alice is a compulsive liar and manipulator. One important characteristic of Alice may be narcissism; we see how this manifests itself in different cases. Alice discredits the psychosexual theory of Sigmund Freud, which was circulated in 1979. Every time someone tends to disagree with Alice, she rebels against them. Dr. Alvar becomes her nemesis because he is not ready to believe her lies like the others.
Alice’s superiority complex may lead her to poison her husband. While she says she studied chemistry and later became a private eye, we’ve never seen her do anything related to both fields. We see that she is only connected to the Damian case, which seems strange. On the other hand, Alice humiliates her husband in front of the doctors, saying that he only knows how to play poker and polo. She also mentions that she does not believe her husband studied law. But when we look at Heliodoro, it seems that he does more than Alice. He plays polo, hangs out with people, attends charity events, and seems to be in powerful circles.
When Heliodoro is talking to the women at the club, Alice gives him a look that seems to come from jealousy. After all, he seems to be more experienced than her. These cases show that Alice harbored jealousy and hostility towards her husband and wanted to kill him. We also see a pattern in how Alice lies and uses different pieces of information to form her truth.
At the beginning of the film, Alice says that she doesn’t love her husband, but when she gets in trouble, Alice says that everything is fine between her and Heliodoro. When Dr. Alvar does not believe her explanation and performs an electroshock procedure on her, she imagines that Heliodoro is the real criminal behind everything. So, Alice changes her position and blames the person she wants to kill for everything. Alice’s theories and explanations seem too convenient in every way. She lies through almost everything due to lack of evidence. But when Dr. Alvar proves that Alice does not know Garcia del Olmo and Dr. Donadio, Alice is at a loss for words.
Every time Alice faces reality, she experiences dissonance and Alice convinces herself that she is right. At the end, when Dr. Donadio appears before her, we see her expression change dramatically. Alice’s mind seems to be processing the dissonance, and the audience is left with the impression that Alice has been lying all this time. Thus, I repeat, Alice may be a mentally ill and obsessive liar who changes her story in such a way that no one can refute it.
Theory 2: Alice Gould is sane
Alice may be sane and fall victim to a massive plan conceived by Heliodoro and Dr. Alvar. One important reason for this conclusion is the behavior of Dr. Samuel Alvar throughout the film. Although this man talks about healing everyone and reforming mental institutions, he seems rather selfish. For example, when Luis Ojedas dies, he does not consider it necessary to report to the police. When a murder occurs in the hospital, Dr. Alvar only cares about his reputation. He calls the inspector to his office and tries to hush up the case. These two cases give us an idea of who Dr. Alvar is under the façade of a modern mental health professional.
Another intriguing aspect of Dr. Alvar’s character is his behavior towards Alice. Every time Alice tries to refute him and discredit his analysis, the man becomes defensive. In one scene, he yells at her because he can’t stand it when Alice asks him questions. If Dr. Alvar really believed that Alice was ill, his behavior towards her would have been different. He would have been more sympathetic to Alice’s condition. A major part of the work of therapists in treating patients is to establish trust. Dr. Alvar never tries to build this with Alice because she will most likely expose him.
Apart from Dr. Alvar’s manners, we also find that Heliodoro paid him two million. Thus, it becomes more obvious that he is in cahoots with Alice’s husband and wants to prove that she is insane. When Castell finds the receipt, he says it’s just a donation from Heliodoro that he deposited into the foundation’s account. The explanation doesn’t add up because Heliodoro doesn’t know Dr. Alvar personally. Ideally, Alice’s husband should have donated her directly to the foundation.
In the end, when everyone votes to fire Alice, he withdraws his vote and acts pompous. Dr. Alvar says that he feels sorry for all doctors and their incompetence, because they believe in a sick patient. He gives Castell an envelope addressed to the Minister of Health. Dr. Alvar resigns for personal reasons and asks Castell not to file a report against him. As he prepares to leave, Dr. Alvar reveals how he summoned Dr. Donadio to prove Alice wrong. When Dr. Donadio appears, Alice cannot recognize him. Given that Dr. Alvar has connections in various places, it’s likely that Dr. Donadio could be a conspirator too. Alice is able to prove her sanity again by telling the board how Dr. Alvar, Heliodoro, and Dr. Donadio worked out the scheme together.
Alice leaving the mental hospital?
Alice is likely leaving the psychiatric hospital because the board of doctors has voted unanimously that Alice is mentally stable. Although Dr. Donadio appears at the end, Alice is able to find a way to explain everything. In the beginning, she says she takes pride in getting what she wants, no matter the price. Thus, Alice can leave the asylum even if she is mentally ill. After all, she could have run away after starting the fire, but due to certain circumstances, she decided to stay. If Alice is truly sane, the doctors will let her go, but if she is mentally ill, she will come up with another escape strategy.
What actually happens at the end of Los renglones torcidos de Dios?
Before the medical tribunal, Alvar resigned from his office and therefore from his vote. As he leaves, he mentions Dr. Donadio, Alice’s chief architect, much to the protagonist’s surprise. The doctor arrives, and it’s none other than the one we used to know as Dr. Garcia del Olmo. “ Hi Alice, what problem are you facing this time? ” “And Alice herself is looking at the camera and… End.
The ending makes us see that this fictional disease is the one that the protagonist really has. . With this ambiguous sentence handed down by a psychiatrist, he gives the public the opportunity to understand that Alice is indeed mentally unwell. However, the fact that Lenny is looking at the camera makes a lot of sense. This decision may be up to each individual to draw their own conclusions.
He’s really unstable, was this a ploy by the director of the psychiatric hospital himself? Perhaps Alvar’s resignation is part of a plan by the husband, who paid the doctor to make a false report – and pretend not to know – and thus save his fortune. In addition, the plot continues to show us Alice in a way that makes us believe she is innocent and a victim of a Machiavellian plan.
However, the most logical conclusion that remains after this phrase is that the investigation and everything else begins with paranoia in the head . One of many, as suggested by your doctor.
