Rohan Jain
Netflix’s ‘God’s Crooked Lines’ is a mind-bending movie about Alice Gould, a private investigator who pretends to be mentally unstable and admits herself into an asylum. She enters the place to find the truth behind a former patient’s alleged murder. Alice interacts with a few patients at the hospital and feels like something is wrong. She also informs one of the doctors about her assignment and how the institution’s director, Dr. Samuel Alvar, knows about it.
Alice says that she took Dr. Samuel Alvar’s and Dr. Donadio’s help to get admitted to the hospital. The hospital staff received Dr. Donadio’s fake diagnosis about Alice Gould’s lying habit. But, when Dr. Alvar meets Alice, he says he has no clue about Alice’s account of things, and to him, she’s merely a patient. Alvar insinuates that Alice is a compulsive liar and that Dr. Donadio’s assessment is accurate. We do not see the mysterious Dr. Donadio for most of the movie, and his identity remains unknown to the audience. So, who is Dr. Donadio?
Who is Dr. Donadio?
Dr. Donadio is most likely the person who accompanies Alice Gould to the mental asylum when she first enters it. The man reappears at the film’s end when Dr. Samuel Alvar tries to prove that Alice is a compulsive liar with a mental illness. In the beginning, when Alice speaks to Dr. Teodoro Ruipérez, the latter reads out Dr. Donadio’s diagnosis to the former. According to Dr. Donadio, Alice Gould is an expert liar and manipulator who can convince even the best mental health professionals. Even if her arguments contradict each other, she finds a way to make everything sound logical.
Alice Gould maintains that she made Dr. Donadio give a fake diagnosis of paranoia and added her personal touch with the line about lies. Interestingly, she also mentions Dr. Garcia del Olmo, the father of the allegedly murdered boy. When recounting how she planned everything, the scenes show the man who drops Alice at the asylum at the film’s beginning. Alice talks about how her husband introduced her to Garcia and how she began working on the case. In a scene where she’s trying to prove that she’s a private investigator, a stranger sits nearby and listens.
Following this, Alice walks up to the man, assuming he’s the police officer but finds out that he’s Garcia del Olmo. Dr. Samuel Alvar witnesses this and implies that Alice is a liar. Alice’s mind starts racing as she tries to deduce the identity of the man who dropped her at the institution. As the narrative progresses, Alice calls the man some actor her husband hired to make her seem like a lunatic. Alice also believes Dr. Samuel Alvar is in on the conspiracy with her husband.
Toward the end, after Alice is deemed sane and permitted to be discharged from the hospital, Dr. Samuel asks Dr. Donadio to come and prove that Alice is mentally ill. When Dr. Donadio arrives, everyone is shocked because it’s the same man Alice thought was Garcia del Olmo. The board of doctors is also equally shocked because they realize that Alice doesn’t recognize Dr. Donadio. The movie ends at this point and leaves us wondering about Dr. Donadio. Is the man Dr. Donadio or is he a poser like Alice previously mentioned?
The man is Dr. Donadio because if he weren’t, the other doctors wouldn’t have identified him. However, his presence likely means Dr. Donadio is also working with Dr. Samuel Alvar and Alice’s husband. Earlier, Samuel tries to discredit Alice by bringing the real Garcia del Olmo to the hospital. Now, Samuel tries to repeat his trick and prove to everyone that he has been right about Alice all along. Dr. Donadio plays a crucial role in Alice’s husband’s scheme because he hides in plain sight, and Alice never questions his identity. Through Dr. Donadio, Alice’s husband tries to trap his wife in the institution forever. Thus, to reiterate, Dr. Donadio impersonates Garcia del Olmo and works with Dr. Samuel Alvar and Alice’s husband to deem Alice an insane person.
Read More: Is God’s Crooked Lines Based on a True Story or a Book?
