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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The French thriller Tell No One starts off with a wallop and never lets up. Only minutes into the film, after one of those leisurely European country dinners that lasts all evening, a couple drives off for an illicit midnight dip in the lake that goes suddenly, shockingly wrong.
What happens that night, and its unexpected repercussions, is the meat of the matter in this whirlwind of a suspense thriller from Guillaume Canet. A popular French actor turned filmmaker, Canet wrote the script from a novel by American author Harlan Coben and relocated the story to suburban France. There are plenty of balls to keep spinning in Coben's complicated plot, and Canet manages to keep the story hopping, the viewer intrigued, and the action almost deliriously intense throughout.
Eight years after the opening scene, when unidentified remains are discovered near the lake, the case is reopened, with both a dogged police team and a gang of high-tech crooks racing to sort it out. Caught in the middle, and everyone's prime suspect, is the one man we think we know can't be guilty: Alex (Francois Cluzet), survivor of the lake incident, and now a popular pediatrician who still grieves for his dead wife, Margot (Marie-Josée Croze). So it's a little unsettling to Alex when he starts receiving terse e-mails from Margot, warning him to keep their communication secret.
Alex begins his own tentative and painful investigation, questioning, among others, Margot's father (Andre Dussolier), a retired cop, who identified her body, searching for autopsy reports and photos that have gone missing, and uncovering secrets he never knew about his wife. Meanwhile, the police are trailing Alex, on the theory that he had his wife killed, while another gang of unknown origin is tapping into his computer. Alex's only ally is Hélenè (Kristin Scott Thomas), the no-nonsense girlfriend of Alex's equestrienne sister, Anne (Marina Hands).
When another murder occurs for which Alex is blatantly framed, he finds himself on the run from an ever tightening circle of cops and crooks. And I mean literally on the run, especially in one dazzling sequence in which Canet's camera tracks the intrepid Alex fleeing across one of those ridiculously congested freeways outside of Paris, over a wall, through farm market stalls, in and out of restaurants, and down a maze-like warren of back alleys.
Much of the story concerns the rarefied world of championship horse breeding and equestrian competition (which may have attracted filmmaker Canet, himself the son of horse-breeders, to the project). In flashbacks, we see the young Alex and Margot growing up together on the estate--more like a fiefdom--of wealthy horse breeder Gilbert Neuville (the venerable Jean Rochefort). He was the son of Neuville's stablemaster; her father was the local constable. How the sins of the fathers (and sons) twine through the generations keeps the story unspooling and the audience guessing to the end.
A requisite supporting cast of colorful characters provide their share of thrills. Alex's friends in low places--like loyal, tattooed petty criminal, Bruno (Gilles Lellouche), whose hemophiliac son is Alex's patient--help him out of many a jam. The great Nathalie Baye has a few brief, effective scenes as a tough lawyer who doubts her client, but rebounds with masterful aplomb. And among the many thugs and nasties, the movie's signature villain is a tall, dark, austere dominatrix (Mikaela Fisher) sophisticated in the delicate art of inflicting pain. There are bigger criminal masterminds in the plot, but she's the one who'll give you the willies.
The eye of the storm around whom all the crazier elements coalesce is Cluzet, who imbues Alex with brains, determination, and stamina, combined with human vulnerability. His mad dash through the minefield of the plot sets the pace for a wild ride.
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| Overall rating: |
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3.0 |
| Acting: |
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3.0 |
| Visuals: |
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3.0 |
| Writing: |
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3.0 |
| Pacing: |
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3.0 |
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