A French adaptation of a novel by American Harlan Coben, Tell No One is a thriller for people who don’t think of the term as synonymous with car chases. Instead, there’s a an excellent foot chase, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The hero is a doctor (François Cluzet) whose wife and childhood sweetheart has apparently been murdered. Yet, eight years later, he receives a tantalizing e-mail suggesting she may yet be alive, yet trying to learn the truth may invite danger. At the same time, the police find new evidence that they think suggests that he may have been the one responsible for her death. It’s hard to see how all these events link up, and the movie moves along on threads that seem disparate for quite a while. Yet the end brings them together in a satisfying, even modestly touching, way. Among the supporting cast are Nathalie Baye as the doctor’s lawyer, and Kristen Scott Thomas as a friend.
For my money, Woody Allen’s Match Point is still the best-plotted recent film of this type, while another recent French one, Roman de Gare, is a little stronger on character. Both of those films are slightly artier than this, so some people may prefer it. For me, there’s a slight inelegance in relying on a long exposition by one character to explain everything, as well as the doctor’s conveniently having a criminal acquaintance at his disposal. But I quibble; overall, this is a top-notch, unpretentious suspense drama, which earned César awards for Cluzet and director Guillaume Canet.
IMDB link
viewed 7/23/08 at Ritz 5; reviewed 7/28/08
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