This story from Spain based on Josef Fritzl should be more compelling than it is. The acting and setting are great but the burn is so slow it becomes tedium. Every little thing isn't important or even interesting. The conceits work to a point. A couple find a little girl in the middle of the road. She crumples after she doesn't get hit by a motorcycle. When brought to the hospital they find she won't talk or leave the confines of the chalk squares she draws on the floor. The couple then take her home to live with them at the request of the staff because she responds to them, especially to the wife. We see that she is taking fertility shots while hiding them from her husband. She must want a child, yes, but she wants to do everything herself and only then present the finished product to her husband. The ending is especially lacking; leaving out the scene where the coin drops is like forgetting to make the point, and it needs to be made. The aftermath, i.e., the cops doing their scene investigation is nothing compared to that.
Review of The Chalk Line
