A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

A different way of telling a story

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

...Italians can do pizza, French can do wine and American can do movies.French movies can be outstanding, but this is not one of them. Intouchables (2011) was delightful and deeply French: I cannot imagine US fim makers producing a movie like that.This mistery movie is dated, to say the least. Huge use of flashbacks, culprit who in the last two minutes explains everything to the public. All of this is obsolete way of film making, at least 50 years old. Mistery movies nowadays are way different and smarter. In this movie I lost my interest after ten minutes. The only reason I kept going was my wife, who anyway lost its interest in the middle of the movie. We were waiting for some interesting twist because of IMDb high rating, but it didn't happen. The movie is boring, shallow and useless. I gave 5/10 because of decent acting and cinematography, but as regards the plot it is 1/10

So very happy I discovered this gem from France."Tell No One" on paper sounds like a typical plot - a man's wife is murdered and he's suspected. It is SO much more than that.The film begins eight years earlier, with the happily married Alexandre Beck and his wife Margot. (Why such an un-French name? The novel takes place in the U.S.)One night, while on the lake, Beck hears the screams of his wife, but before he can get to her, someone knocks him out cold and he falls into the lake.Now it is in the present. A serial killer has always been though to be the killer of seven other people found buried nearby. It is assumed that he killed Margot, though in appearance, it doesn't look like one of his crimes.Beck is a doctor, a pediatrician, and still feels her loss. He is somewhat isolated except for a friendship with Helene Perkins (Kristin Scott-Thomas) and her lover, an accomplished rider. Strange things begin to happen. Two other bodies are found near where Margo was killed, and her case is reopened, as the authorities were never satisfied that Beck wasn't the killer. Then Beck receives an email with a video link, and a time he is to watch it. "Tell No One" twists and turns like the branches of an intertwining vine. You not only won't see anything coming, but just when you think you do, you don't. The suspense is fantastic. Despite all of this, the movie tells its story in a straightforward way so there is no confusion. So often when I see a film, I go to a message board and the threads are "I didn't understand the end," "What was going on..." etc.Beautifully acted by Paul Cluzet, a Dustin Hoffman lookalike, and the rest of the cast, and it's directed by the multi-talented Guillaume Canet who also contributed to the screenplay. Canet, at 41, has a long list of acting credits, directing credits, he has worked as a producer, a screenwriter, and a composer! I'd say he has it all covered.Don't miss this.

Particularly since the beginning of the new Millennium, I personally nominate France as the country where currently the absolute greatest action, thriller and horror films are being made! In the horror section France has been responsible the most genuinely shocking and petrifying titles of the past fifteen years, with "À l'intérieur", "Haute Tension" and "Frontière(s)" as just a couple of examples. When it comes to action/thriller movies, there's for example the breathtakingly tense and spectacular "La Proie", but most of all there's "Ne le dit à personne". In many more ways than just one this is the perfect thriller, with an indescribably tense and captivating plot, a fascinating cast of characters, impeccably staged action footage and stunts, stellar acting performances from everyone involved and solid & surefooted leadership from a talented young director who clearly knows what he wants! François Cluzet, also the star of the must-see French drama masterpieces "Intouchables" and "Les Petits Mouchoirs", is terrific as the tormented protagonist Alexandre Beck; - a pediatrician still baffled over the gruesome death of his beloved wife Margot, eight years ago. It happened while Margot and Alexandre where enjoying a vacation near a quiet and peaceful lake. Following a nightly swim, Alexandre got knocked unconscious while Margot was brutally abducted and vanished into the night. A few days later, while Alexandre was still in a coma, Margot's father and the police found her savagely mutilated corpse surrounded with the decaying leftovers of small animals; the trademark of a vicious serial killer at large in the area. Now, all these years later, two unidentified bodies are found at the same location and Alexandre receives a mysterious email with a link to a surveillance camera video that briefly shows that Margot is still alive. The case is re-opened with Alexandre as the main suspect, and he is forced to unravel the complicated truth of what really happened to his wife while the police as well as several unknown assailants are on his tail. I honestly can't give a more detailed description of the events in the film, because A) it would require at least two full pages of text and B) it would truly be a shame to reveal too much about the compelling plot! At a certain point during our TV-evening, my wife asked me: "What do you think happened?" Quite frankly, "Ne le dit à personne" isn't the type of thriller where you can guess what the next plot twist will be or where you can co-investigate along with the protagonist. The script contains more convoluted twists and turns than a French mountain road and the plot constantly refers to detailed little events that occurred before, during and after Margot's unexplained disappearance. This is the type of thriller where you have to remain extremely focused the entire time in order to spot and remember every little piece of information in order to be able to complete the puzzle during the marvelous finale. There are many supportive characters, but they all have an equally essential part in the story and every tiniest footnote in the plot may or may not turn out to become a vital piece of the mystery puzzle. You can tell that "Ne le dit à personne" is faithfully based on a novel, since the characters drawings are extremely detailed and the denouement is 100% waterproof. Until the very last moments of Alexandre's search for the truth, the viewer is surprised as well as misled and confused. It's truly a thriller that will cause you to analyze and discuss the events long after the movie is finished. As stated previously, the acting performances are terrific, and so is everything else about this production, including the filming locations, stunt work and cinematography. My only minor complaint lies with the soundtrack, as I would have preferred the use of French language songs instead of popular English songs, but I guess this is due to the fact that the film is based on an American novel (courtesy of Harlan Coben)

No one saw Guillaume Canet, the handsome Frenchy from "The Beach", coming but his adaptation of Harlam Coben's "Tell No One" took everyone by surprise, revealing one of the most promising directorial talents of his generation. Like, USA has now Ben Affleck, France had Guillaume Canet.And reviewing "Tell No One" can't do without praising the well-crafted directing job: the long extended shots, a clever editing showing you exactly what you need to know at the right moment, a sensitive use of flashbacks, effective close-ups on computer screens, on men watching and being watched, to better accentuate the paranoid feeling and last but not least, a breath-taking foot chase taking us from the top of a building to Paris' peripheral road and concluding in the Clignancourt market. This is "The French Connection" and "Marathon Man" in one sequence that certainly earned Canet his César (French Oscar) for Best Director.My mention of "Marathon Man" isn't fortuitous; it takes me back to the performance of François Cluzet who, like American audiences pointed out, shares an uncanny resemblance with Dustin Hoffman. Cluzet is the one who carries the film, and this is saying a lot with the whole star-studded cast surrounding him, from Guillaume Canet himself as the son of a powerful man played by movie veteran Jean Rochefort, the kind of respectable figures à la 'Noah Cross', from Nathalie Baye as the influential lawyer, to François Berléand and Kristin Scott Thomas who shares a lesbian relationship with Cluzet's sister in the fill, it's a whole spot-the-star game that could have damaged the film's credibility a serious drama. But accusing "Tell No One" of 'commerciality' by insertion of prestigious names in the credits, would unfairly overlook the two real strengths of the film besides the directing: Cluzet's performance and the writing.Granted Cluzet has never been regarded on the same level as a Gérard Depardieu or a Jean Reno, and this is probably due to his ordinary-looking appearance. But for the film, it's perfect. Cluzet plays Alexandre Beck, a doctor married with his childhood love Margot (Marie-Josée Croze). During a pivotal night, after a romantic skin-dipping in a pond, an argument starts, she swims ashore and while he climbs the ladder after hearing her scream. We only know the aftermath from a poignant flashback, Margot's body was discovered dead, severely mutilated, she was recognized by her father, a cop played by Andre Dussolier, and then cremated. There was no explanation about how Back didn't fall in the pond, but Margot was dead for sure, until a mysterious mail lead Alexandre to believe that there are some loose ends in the 'official version'.The quest for the truth is paralleled by eavesdropping moments indicating that Alexandre isn't the only one to believe his wife is still alive, and the Police join the game when one of Alexandre's friends is brutally killed. Naturally, Alexandre is suspected of two murders, including his wife, and he has no other choice than running away from policemen and his mysterious observers, seeking some providential assistance from his lawyer or a thug who conveniently carries the right weapons, any help is welcome for Alexandre if he can reach his wife. And in this nightmarishly paranoid dog-and-cat-and-mouse chase, Cluzet finds the perfect note as a no-nonsense man who's both passive and active in a way that inevitably our sympathy empathy, even more in the powerful moments where he has clear evidence of his wife being alive.Cluzet, who won the Best Actor César, for the role, had his career revived as a Travolta's post "Pulp Fiction" period, becoming a sure value of French Cinema, starring in the most popular recent movies, including "Untouchables" and it's a credit to Guillaume Canet to have contributed to that. But there's more than the acting, the script also contributes to balance the effects of obligatory formula, thanks to a clever trick consisting on duplicating each figure which fits a story that opens with a mistaken identity. One of the thugs looks like Alexandre, you have a good cop and a bad one, one believes in Alexandre's guilt since police found out the evidence in his house, but like Berleand (the wiser cop) asked: why would a man who made a perfect murder be so silly to keep the gun and wait patiently for the police to come at him? A similar moment occurs when the prosecutor states that Alexandre signed his own guilt by running away, an opinion immediately dismissed by the lawyer. The film respects our intelligence by putting its own elements into perspective.Having said that, there's no need to details the plot, which hides more revelations and twists that you'll ever expect, but the way Canet brilliantly and confidently pulls the strings of our nerves to assemble each piece of the puzzle one by one until the climactic revelation is a masterstroke a few directors achieved in a whole career. That's the kind of thrillers where nothing is hazardous, each element, no matter how futile it seems, Alexandre saving one little boy, a smile at a cyber room, anything serves the plot without feeling forced, and even after a second viewing, you start noticing new details of this multi-layered experience. Naturally, being an adaptation of an American novel, from a director who was obviously nourished by American classics, "Tell No One" might be accused of mimicking American cinema, a criticism often held against French movies. But no one can deny the authentic Parisian vibes you get from the film, and no one can accuse of copycatting one of the first films to use Internet technology as a significant plot device. "Tell No One" is indeed THE French thriller tailor-made for the 2000's and being a commercial success, doesn't make it 'commercial' for all that. And I left the theater with a great satisfaction, after a heart-pounding and emotionally satisfying experience, thinking in myself, that's the kind of movie that makes me love movies.