Quando Dio imparò a scrivere

Another great movie by one of the top Spanish directors nowadays. As his other projects you get a fantastic dosis of suspense and will keep asking questions throught the film. A difficult book to adapt but the director manages to do it perfectly well. Really entertaining movie with quality. Eduard Fernández and Oriol Paulo are always a guarantee for movie lovers.. My advice is not to read a lot about the film. I also recommend checking the director's previous films. This has been the best year in Spanish cinema in a long time. Mistery, good acting and entertainment, enough for me. Turn on the tv and Enjoy...

Very well done! The question throughout the movie is whether she is absolutely sane and telling the whole truth, or whether she is suffering from a mental disorder, and sucking everyone in.

Synopsis: The film is centered around Alice Gould de Almenara, a ravishingly beautiful and extremely intelligent woman who enters a mental asylum situated in Spain to uncover the mysterious death of an inmate. She is a private investigator and was contacted by the deceased's father to examine the case.

The film is centered around Alice Gould de Almenara, a ravishingly beautiful and extremely intelligent woman who enters a mental asylum situated in Spain to uncover the mysterious death of an inmate. She is a private investigator and was contacted by the deceased's father to examine the case.

I watched this with little expectations other than a mix of negative reviews and one about 'a movie for intellectuals.' If you enjoyed Shutter Island, I highly recommend as this is of the same genre, well made, characters develop at a comfortable pace and the crooked lines in the plot are well played, done with thought and til the end.

I look forward to watching this again as I know I will pick up something new with each watch. I didn't recognize any of these actors, but was very impressed by all. Any movie set made to be in an insane asylum can go one of many ways. The characters here were intriguing, make you laugh, cry, and want to be their friends.

As other reviewers have indicated this one has a lot of similarities with "Shutter Island", but in contrary to that great movie this one from my point of view crosses the line between creating a meaningful storyline and just creating "smoke and mirrors". For me it's clear that the director has spent more efforts on holding the audience in a constant uncertainty about "what is real and what is imagination" rather than delivering an exciting plot. 3/4 into the movies I realized that I had really no clue what was going on and, even worse, that I didn't really care either! As many other reviewers are mentioning the book it's build on I might consider reading that one.....I might also consider (if I have a day with nothing better to do!) to watch the movie again....just to check that I didn't miss out on anything?

The Mystery concept is on full display in this film, though unfortunately it is not a new, refreshed, or novel mystery. Here we have the typical madhouse film that questions the sanity of the protagonist mixed with the story of the typical crime story without a clear culprit.

But don't get me wrong, this movie is good and entertaining, despite its slow pace and excessively long footage. It is somehow a good mystery that if you plunge into the plot, you will fall into the confusion that the story presents and you will be motivated to unravel this mess with the smell of old parchment. The last plot twist can be felt a little bit forced, but after all, it's expected.