Flicks: Tell No One Things are not at all what they at first seemed to be, but love is constant nevertheless.
by Chris Dashiell- The Film Snob
Mystery thrillers, if they're done right, offer a special kind of pleasure. Besides the element of suspense, there's the fun of trying to unravel a complicated plot. A new French film called Tell No One has more twists and turns than most, keeping us guessing until the very end, when the story's loose ends are finally, cleverly tied together.
Francois Cluzet plays a pediatrican named Alex Beck, blissfully married to his childhood sweetheart Margot. But when they go on vacation to her family's country estate, she is suddenly and mysteriously murdered. Cut to eight years later—we gradually learn that a notorious serial killer was sentenced for the crime, but that Alex himself had been a suspect. He has disappeared into his work in order to forget the pain. Then, two more bodies are discovered near where Margot died, which puts the police back on his trail. At the same time, Alex receives an e-mail with a video clip attachment that seems to indicate that his wife is still alive. Events spin out of control, with Alex running from the cops, while a shadowy group of killers follow his trail as well, and the fiendishly inventive story plunges into a spiral of paranoia and dread.
The script is adapted from a Harlan Coben novel and directed with intelligence and style by Guillaume Canet. I especially like the way he throws the viewer into situations without explaining who the characters are—unraveling the different relationships is part of what makes the movie so involving. Kristen Scott Thomas is on hand as Alex's best friend, a kindred spirit who also happens to be his sister's lesbian lover. Then there's a delicious turn by Philippe Lefebvre, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Canet, as an amusing, scrupulously honest detective in the great mystery tradition. In fact, the picture is crammed with colorful characters and subplots, but the story is always impelled forward with a unique blend of tension and cold logic.
Tell No One is not a deeply meaningful film, but it's not just light entertainment either. Cluzet brings the right feeling of inconsolable grief and wounded anger to the lead role, and this tragic sense serves as a fine background for all the thriller and suspense elements. And unlike in a lot of mysteries, the solution is completely understandable, satisfying and potent in its portrayal of the power of corruption. Things are not at all what they at first seemed to be, but love is constant nevertheless.
Chris (the Film Snob) produces the weekly mini-program "Flicks" exclusively for 91.3FM KXCI. Tune in Mondays at 8:00PM and Fridays at 10:00AM and 3:00PM. For more writings from the Film Snob visit www.cinecene.com
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