Monday, August 04, 2008

Movie Review: Tell No One

Here I had better luck with a French film. Tell No One is based on an American novel and is crime thriller. The writer/director Guillaume Canet is a well-known French actor who starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach, but this film more than makes up for that one.

Alex Beck is a pediatrician who's wife Margot was murdered 8 years ago at a secluded lake they visited yearly. When two bodies are found that are linked to Margot the police reopen the case. Simultaneously, Alex receives an anonymous email message that suggests Margot might be alive. After not too long, Alex is on the run.

The story is dense and has a lot of twists and turns. At times I felt a little lost but it held together. There's a long denouement and I did struggle with reading subtitles that went on that long and involved so much exposition about other characters. At the end I had only two questions but others in the group I saw it will were able to answer them quickly and I could answer their questions.

Apparently the ending is different from the novel, and the author actually likes the film's version better. The pace is fast and there is a reasonable amount of action A wonderful foot chase compares well to The Bourne Ultimatum, but with an everyday man instead of a super-spy. Crossing a highway is in fact dangerous.

The actors, aside from Kristin Scott Thomas were unfamiliar to me. All did well in their roles, particularly François Cluzet as Alex.

I wish more films were as good as this one. It's well worth seeing.

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