Tell No One Ne Le Dis A Personne

Guillaume Canet, France, 2006, 125 minutes

The second feature film of director Guillaume Canet, Tell No One (Ne Le Dis A Personne) is a big-budget Hitchcockian thriller based on Harlen Coben’s multi million selling novel. It was a phenomenon at the French box office, taking $17 million in its first four weeks – watching this film its popularity is easy to understand. Combining Hollywood thrills with French cinematic-style, this is a sophisticated blend of psychological suspense and all-out action.

Eight years after his wife's brutal murder, paediatrician Alexandre Beck (Francois Cluzet) receives an unsettling email from an anonymous sender. The message contains a link to a video of a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his deceased wife. Could she still be alive? And why does she instruct him to 'tell no one'? Before he has a chance to lift the lid on this mystery, Alexandre finds himself at the centre of a massive cover-up, with the police trying to pin the blame on him for his wife's murder.

The ‘ordinary man in an extraordinary situation’ plot has been many time before, but this doesn’t make ‘Tell No One’ an any less enjoyable film. Cluzet makes a great everyman-on-the-run (and yes, he has to run. A lot.) The film's action set pieces are brilliant; frantic and nerve-wracking, they expertly distract from the twists and turns of the slightly convoluted plot. Aside from this, a great cast, including Kristen Scott Thomas, André Dussollier and François Berléand, help keep the film on the right side of credible and the emotional core of the film remains steady throughout. See this before the rubbish Hollywood remake is released…

Review by Flippanta Kulakiewicz
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2008