Friday, July 25, 2008

Movie review: Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne)

By Alex Bentley

Tell No One (Ne le dis a personne)

Pediatrician Alexandre Beck still grieves the murder of his beloved wife Margot Beck eight years earlier. When two bodies are found near the scene of the crime, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes a suspect again. The mystery deepens when Alex receives an anonymous e-mail with a link to a video clip, which seems to suggest Margot is somehow still alive, and a message to "Tell No One."

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Tell No One (Ne le dis a personne)

Good film versions of murder mysteries have been in short supply in recent years. Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne), a French film that won four César Awards (France’s version of the Oscars), is touted to be a remedy for that dearth. In reality, while it remains interesting throughout, the film ultimately plays out much like your standard thriller – not bad, mind you, but a tad disappointing.

Alex (François Cluzet) is a pediatrician whose wife, Margot (Marie-Josée Croze, known Stateside for her role as an assassin in Munich), is murdered early on in the movie. The majority of the film takes place eight years later, when Alex receives an e-mail with a video indicating his wife might still be alive. At virtually the same time, police find two bodies buried near land that Alex owns (and also close to the site of Margot’s death), setting into motion a series of events that dredges up police suspicions of Alex’s culpability in Margot’s murder.

The torn apart couple in happier times.

Like many mysteries/thrillers, Tell No One finds itself getting more and more complicated as time goes along. A major strength of the film is how it sells the relationships throughout, even counting minor characters. Alex’s close friendship with his sister’s wife, Hélène (Kristin Scott Thomas, who has quite the French film resumé), gives the film plenty of excuses for him to rely on her in his time of need. Likewise, a professional kindness early in the film to Bruno (Gilles Lellouche), an agitated father with a hemophiliac son, pays off later when Bruno’s experience as a criminal keeps Alex safe when he must avoid detection by police and other unsavory characters.

Ironically, though, the one relationship that is lacking is the one between Alex and Margot. The audience sees precious little of them together at the beginning of the film, and even though there is the occasional flashback to scenes from their past, it’s still not enough to fully invest in their chemistry.

Alex doing what he does best in the film -- running.

Although Tell No One never goes in a straight line, it never takes the sort of twists and turns one might expect of, say, a David Mamet film. Alex’s travails are at times suspenseful and at other times somewhat humorous, given the lengths he goes to in order to unravel the mystery and who he uses to help him. However, the final explanation, while satisfying because it wraps up almost every loose thread, also feels more than a little convenient.

Tell No One is actually based on a book by American novelist Harlan Coben, a mystery writer who’s published at least one book a year for the past 14 years. Translating it into French gives it an air of class, but it can’t fully cover up its flaws.

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