It has been eight years since Parisian pediatrician Dr. Alex Beck (Francois Cluzet) was unable to stop his newlywed wife from being savagely murdered and he still hasn’t recovered from the incident. But everything is thrown into doubt when he receives a mysterious email to a real-time video link of a woman who looks a lot like his wife, promising to reveal more as long as he ominously agrees to, “Tell no one.”

Francois Cluzet is on the run in Music Box Films' Tell No One

This shocking revelation suddenly sends Alex’s life spiraling out of control. The police now want to question him for a multitude of murders, both past and present, while a whole crew of seedy looking creeps shadowing his every move is only helping to fuel his growing terror. Yet even as the glare of suspicion coils around him like a snake Alex is undeterred, the man suddenly obsessed with finding out the truth behind his wife’s murder no matter how dire the consequences.

Based on the bestselling novel by Harlan Coben, Tell No One is a sensational, old-school man-against-the-world thriller bristling in both smarts and excitement. When they say they don’t make movies like they used to, this is exactly the type of film they’re talking about. Recalling other classic pieces of tension-filled popular entertainment like The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, North by Northwest and the Dutch version of The Vanishing, director Guillaume Canet crafts a potent piece of paranoia easily ranking as one of the finest films I’ve seen all year.

Leave it to the French to show Hollywood how it’s done. There are no false steps to this picture, no wrong turns or out of left field occurrences. The filmmaker (co-writing the script with Philippe Lefebvre) doesn’t resort to easy tricks, misplaced violence, ghastly pyrotechnics or any other visual shorthand that would dumb down his enterprise. Instead he treats his audience with respect and intelligence, ratcheting up the intensity with every step closer his hero takes to hopefully finding the truth.

And what a hero he is! The supremely talented Cluzet (so amazing in Claude Chabrol’s L’Enfer) is magnificent, Alex a befuddled yet driven everyman easy to relate to. He loved his wife, almost too much, and just the thought that she might be out there starts him on a rampage teetering on the edge of insanity. Yet the actor never over does it, never pushes the character into a place we can’t empathize with or feel for, ultimately crafting a richly human figure who is both pitiable and courageous all at once.

The rest of the cast is also very good (most notably Kristin Scott Thomas, Marie-Josée Croze and the great Jean Rochefort) but they are all window dressing compared to Cluzet. I’d go so far as to say the man’s performance is Oscar-worthy if it would do any good, but seeing as this picture is barely getting a limited domestic release (coupled with the fact it’s in French with English subtitles) makes the likelihood of anyone in the Academy seeing it (let alone remembering it) perilously resting someplace between slim and none.

When all is said and done, however, this movie belongs to its director. With methodic, dare I say it, Hitchcockian exactitude he moves things along with almost innervating ease. Working in melodic tandem with cinematographer Christophe Offenstein and Oscar-nominated editor Hervé de Luze (The Pianist), the trio unleash a third act chase through the streets of Paris rivaling some of the best I’ve ever seen (and I’m including the open-window theatrics of The Bourne Ultimatum). Moments like these left me breathing so hard I almost couldn’t help but wonder what could possibly happen next, each twist, turn and betrayal like a shot to the heart ripping me to pieces a seemingly every turn.

But it the quiet moments that make the movie a sensation bordering on the instantly classic. Canet knows when to use restraint, understands intimately the power a slowly trickling tear or a fearful sideways glance can have upon an audience when used correctly. All of it added together makes Tell No One the type of thriller viewers won’t want to keep quiet about. In fact, if they have any sense they’re going to be screaming for more.

Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)

- reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle

Additional Links

-  Tell No One Theatrical Trailer