It is irresistibly French
It’s about time. “Tell No One” is a French thriller that is intricately plotted,
well acted, and full of old fashioned suspense. Because the pacing is steady and
fast, we can be allowed to overlook a slew of improbabilities that could be
troubling if we were bored. We aren’t; so don’t look for the holes, just enjoy
the plot twists that are thrown at the audience like handfuls of confetti.
Trying to track these while sorting the characters will keep you busy. Be warned
that the process is both exhausting and rewarding. This movie bristles.
It is
irresistibly French. If you watched this as a silent movie, you would still
appreciate the cultural differences. Scenes of the adult couple’s childhood
friendship, for instance, are delicate without being sentimental; their love for
each other as adults is conveyed beautifully in lakeside scenes without sexual
sledgehammer that is required by American love stories. Add to that the fun of
watching Parisian police work and the interplay among the characters. Strong
cast, speedy direction, good story; good evening.
We meet the
childhood friends, Alex (Francois Cluzet) and Margot (Marie-Josee Croze) as
married adults enjoying a night of skinny dipping and sleeping under the stars.
It is the dock they knew as children. During the night, the couple has a minor
disagreement and Margot dives into the lake and swims to the dock where they
left their clothes. When he hears her scream, Alex follows only to be knocked
out as he is exiting the lake. We already know him as a gentle and perceptive
pediatrician. When, eight years later, two bodies are found buried near the
lake, we can believe he is a suspect but not that he is guilty.
Alex’s
beautiful lawyer Elizabeth (Nathalie Baye) tips him that the police are coming
to arrest him; Alex, who has received an email from his dead wife suggesting a
meeting, jumps out his hospital office window and begins a run through Paris
that would have exhausted an Olympian. This good man, who has loved his wife for
all the years they have been separated, will stay out of jail until he finds her
– if indeed she is alive. The chase and the evidence gathering take place
simultaneously, straining our focus but never undermining our hope.
The movie is
full of good looking people, some of them distractingly alike, all of them
giving first rate performances. No false notes here. As Margot’s father, Andre
Dussollier is enigmatic and strong. What does this man know? From the moment we
meet him, Francois Cluzet’s Alex wears an expression of a man preoccupied with
burdens, as indeed he is. Why are we so caught up in this movie? Probably
because Cluzet and Marie-Josee-Croze manage to create such a credible portrait
of married love that we actually care about them; and because we do, the
complexities of the investigation that envelops them becomes riveting.
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